DC characters have been spread liberally across film and TV over the years, and the Teen Titans are no exception, being seen in the relatively decent animated kids’ series Teen Titans, the rather more childish Teen Titans Go! and its spinoff movie, DC Universe’s live action mediocrity Titans, animated movies Justice League vs. Teen Titans and The Judas Contract, and to a lesser extent the animated series Young Justice. Now, however, we’ve got a fan trailer which imagines what a live-action movie featuring the team might look like.
Like all comic book supergroups, the Teen Titans’ lineup has been varied over the years, although its most well-known roster comes from the ‘80s relaunch New Teen Titans, consisting of Robin, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy, and is the one used in most adaptations.
Being a fan trailer, the material here is collected from elsewhere, with the sources being quite extensive, including short web series Nightwing; the aforementioned Titans, which also includes a shot of the group’s original lineup retconned into season 2 that as well as Robin consisted of Hawk, Dove, Aqualad and Wonder Girl; Justice League; Birds of Prey; the Batman: Arkham games; and a voiceover from The Dark Knight Rises. Oddly, it also features Silk Spectre from Watchmen, who seems to be standing in for Starfire until that character’s Titans incarnation appears toward the end.
For a Teen Titans movie, the most logical choice of antagonist is Deathstroke, since although the brutal warrior is now the scourge of many DC heroes, he was originally created to be a nemesis for the young heroes, his animosity stemming from his blaming them for the death of his son Ravager. Multiple versions of the character appear throughout the trailer, too, his growling malevolence felt in each shot.
Most people are a little wary of live-action DC properties at the moment as their quality has a tendency to be questionable at best, but with enough successful Teen Titans adaptations already existing, if a new one were to be made, its creatives won’t have to look to far for examples of what actually worked.