DC Digital Service Bringing New Season of Young Justice, Titans TV Show

New DC Comics logo 2016

Warner Bros. seems to be jumping into the brave digital future all over the place with their Warner Bros. Digital Networks Group. The Warner Archive website, which used to sell made-on-demand DVDs, is now home to a streaming service for classic movies and TV. HBO Now delivers the premium cable service directly to customers. They’ve turned their cartoon channel Boomerang into a subscription service. (If only they’d do the same thing for TCM, but that’s probably too close to the first choice I mentioned.)

The latest announcement is that they will also be offering a “DC-branded direct-to-consumer digital service in 2018.” As with CBS All Access (which launched based on news of a new Star Trek series, which hasn’t happened yet), the draw is meant to be original shows you can’t get anywhere else. In this case, the much-loved Young Justice cartoon will continue with a third season, Young Justice: Outsiders.

Plus, the series will get its own teen superhero live-action drama, Titans. Greg Berlanti, producer behind the sprawling set of CW superhero series (including The Flash and Arrow), will co-produce with Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, and Sarah Schechter. From the press release:

Titans follows a group of young soon-to-be superheroes recruited from every corner of the DC Universe. In this action-packed series, Dick Grayson emerges from the shadows to become the leader of a fearless band of new heroes, including Starfire, Raven and many others. Titans is a dramatic, live-action adventure series that will explore and celebrate one of the most popular comic book teams ever.

Meanwhile, the premise for Young Justice: Outsiders is:

In the highly anticipated new season, the team faces its greatest challenge yet as it takes on meta-human trafficking and the terrifying threat it creates for a society caught in the crossfire of a genetic arms race spanning the globe and the galaxy.

I’m guessing it’s not a coincidence that “Outsiders” is also a DC trademark for yet another superhero team? Titans was originally planned as a pilot for Warner network TNT in 2014 but wasn’t picked up.

You can sign up at www.DCFanUpdates.com to be on a mailing list for updates about the streaming service. I’m curious to see what other archive content is included (because you can’t run a streaming site with just two shows, right?) and what the monthly subscription cost will be. Deadline says it will be “designed as an immersive experience with fan interaction and will encompass comics as well as TV series.”

Already, there’s fan pushback in the comments at the DC blog post (linked above) that they don’t want yet another monthly fee to watch content they’re interested in. Comments include “Yet another nickle and dimeing of the fans. There are way to many paid streaming services already.” and “Horribly disappointing news that they will be on DC’/WB’s own, exclusive, pay-us-extra-money channel. I’m not going to do it for Star Trek, I’m not going to do it for you.” Plus, lots of concern over whether it will be available around the world or just in the U.S.



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