‘Titans’ Trailer Brings the F-Bomb to DC Universe

DC Entertainment is making a brave and bold statement as it launches the first peek at Titans, the inaugural television series from its digital streaming service DC Universe.

The trailer for Titans launched Thursday, establishing a dark and gritty tone for the series that will take audiences into more mature waters than they may be used to. The most shocking moment comes when Robin, the long-standing sidekick of Batman, responds to a jittery mugger who says Batman doesn’t kill criminals by saying “F— Batman.” Bloody and lethal mayhem ensues.

Titans focuses on Robin and the teen characters first introduced in the early 1980s by the Teen Titans comic by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, namely Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy.

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The characters are popular not only due to the many incarnations of the comic, once THE most popular DC title, but also because of the long-running cartoon series Teen Titans Go. The show, so hyper and brightly colored it’s like mainlining a box of sugary cereal, is the top show on Cartoon Network and led to the show being adapted into a feature film that opens July 27.

But DC Universe’s show is a marked departure from the cartoon, as evidenced by the trailer. Robin, played by Brenton Thwaites, takes center stage as a young man who may be the only hope for Raven, played by Teagan Croft, who is struggling with the dark side of her power. We also catch glimpses of Anna Diop as the alien Koriand’r, aka Starfire, and Ryan Porter as the green shapeshifter Beast Boy.

The show, which hails from Greg Berlanti, Akiva Goldsman and Geoff Johns, will serve as the launching pad for another DC Universe show, Doom Patrol, and will feature even more heroes.

But for Titans to make a mark and bring eyeballs to DC’s big bet, it has to stand out in a landscape where shows on streaming services push envelopes to get noticed. The trailer does that.

DC Universe launches this fall and will feature original and archive series and movies, comic books and more.