A Dark Titans is Coming To The DC Universe | NYCC 2018

So nice to talk to you about the new TV show Titans. Tell us a little bit about your character. Well Raven is, Rachel is a troubled girl who doesn't know what's inside of her but she knows that there's a darkness inside of her which comes out whenever she's emotional like sad or angry. So talk to me a little bit about the duality of this character because she's an empath but there is that darkness and that demonic subconscious up to her.

How is it playing that? So she has a heart of gold so she helps people, she wants to help people, she wants to heal people. She has that in her but at the same time there's this other part of her who wants to hurt people and protect herself. So it's interesting to play both and in her reflection she actually sees the kind of like split and in her reflection she sees the more demonic version and she's the more healing person.

How will we see her grow throughout the few episodes in terms of Raven and becoming Raven? Well throughout the season she discovers more and more about her power and throughout the series and not just the season but through the series as a whole she gains more control over how she can use her power. Fantastic we're really excited for it. We've heard great things.

Thank you for talking with us. So you play the title, you know the main character on the show and I'm hearing it's a very dark show so were there any apprehension of taking on a role like this? There was apprehension. I think the apprehension was basically just question marks as to how the writers and the producers would get the tone of the show right and by tone I mean is it going to be like classic superhero and are we going to be laughing?

Is it light? Which I'm hearing it's not. Which it's not. It has that darkness and they really invested into telling the back story into the emotional lives of these characters so that balance in tone was something that appealed to me. Which brings me to an interesting question because you're Dick Grayson/Robin but in this tone wouldn't you really more be the dark wing?

The dark wing? Yeah. The night wing? I'm sorry the night wing. Dark wing is cool too. I'm sure there is a dark wing somewhere. The story is about Dick Grayson trying to leave Robin behind and form his own identity you know which we all know from the comic books he ends up becoming night wing so it's really watching him find the confidence, find the whatever it is, find the right time to break out and basically become his own new superhero and so we see a lot of the reasons why he leaves Robin and a lot of that darkness and anger and frustration we see him over the course of the series breaking out of that.

So will we see that transition flow and will we get to that point of night wing? I have not seen the final edit. I've only seen what you guys have seen which is the first two episodes so I would love to say yes but it may be cut in a different way. That's a boss question. So tell me a little bit about the physicality of this role for you. Well for the stunts for Robin I learned a few choreographed pieces with my bow staff so that was a new skill for me to learn and the rest was mainly just hand to hand combat.

Our stunt coordinator Lionel had a vision of very quick cuts using the camera to create energy in and out so with that style it allowed us to do most of our own stunts. There were no long wide shots with us having to learn major pieces. We didn't really have the time for that but I had a really cool stunt guy who was really talented and he helped with all the flips and all the circus acrobat physicality stuff.

Well we're really excited for it. We're hearing great things. Thanks for speaking with us today. Thanks so much. Alright so it's a new series and you play Beast Boy. So tell me about Beast Boy. A.K.A Garfield Logan. That's actually his real name but Beast Boy is kind of the goofy pain in the ass, light hearted kid that tries to make sure when things are violent, when things are gritty and dark and DC, Beast Boy comes along and tries to crack a joke and make people smile.

So it's fun playing it. It's the best. Especially when the sets are dark and we're shooting late nights, I get to try and bring everyone's energy up and at the expense of my image it's fine. It's okay. I don't mind. As long as people are smiling and laughing. Fantastic. So you get to shape shift but if you could shape shift into anything, what would you want to shape shift into?

My Japanese zodiac is a bore. That's the year that I was born and if I could shape shift into a bore, that's another full circle moment that would be kind of unbelievable. Interesting. So we hear that this show is dark and violent. If you could sum up in one word besides dark and violent, what would that word be? It is a grayscale rainbow. I'm going to hyphenate that.

It's a very colorful show but it's not colorful in the sense of traditional superheroes. The costume design has color obviously but we have so many shades in the sense of we're playing with so many genres, we're playing with so many characters, so many different stories and I'm genuinely surprised that the writers were able to even weave the entire story arc in one cohesive current.

At first we were waiting for some scripts to come out and we were genuinely interested in the direction of the show and when it all came together, my hat's off to the writers. They did a phenomenal job. Thank you guys for the effort that you put in. Fantastic. We're really looking forward to it. We're hearing great things about it. Nice to meet you.

Have a great rest of your time. You too. Hi Minka, how are you? I'm very well. How are you? I'm great. So tell me about playing Dove. Tell me a little bit about the character and what we can expect for her this season. I play Dove, part of a duo Hawk and Dove. Dove is the avatar of peace and order and Hawk is the avatar of war and chaos. They balance each other out really well.

We get to see them, we're introduced to them in the second episode and it's really fun. Geoff Johns in Akiva Goldsman has done such a great job of creating a world that's really grounded and real and more grown up than any other show you've ever seen while still being able to maintain the superhero aspect of it because it's also very important and a lot of fun.

And so it's been just such a joy to be able to dive into these characters. The Hawk and Dove relationship is a very codependent one. So these characters are very flawed and damaged and I'm so attracted. Aren't we all? Exactly. So that's why I find it to be so much fun because it's so relatable and real and we know these people and we know these relationships and so it's a lot of fun.

So how will we see their relationship evolve? Because you know you say don't work with your significant other so obviously there's and if they're opposites there's going to be some push and pull there so how will we see them evolve through the season? It's interesting actually we kind of go backwards. You get to see us go you get to see our origin story as the as the season goes on.

Later on in the season you'll actually see where Hank and Don meet for the very first time and before they even become before Don is Dove. So you get to see how she becomes Dawn. Keeping all the Dons and the Doves. It's too confusing. Yeah, yeah. Even on set they're like they're yeah it's funny. Dawn, Dawn, Dawn. A-W-N-O-N. You need a nickname. Anyway we hear that the series is a little dark and violent so besides those two words give me one other word to sum up this season.

One word? Yeah, one word. That's all you get. It's a challenge. Compelling. Oh I like that word. Why do you say compelling? Just because it's a story of lost souls and you know lost identities and people with broken hearts trying to find themselves and their voices and learn who they are. Fantastic. I think even though they're superheroes people will relate to them as characters.

Absolutely and I think that the benefit of being able to do this sort of storytelling as a superhero is you get to see humans be ordinary and also extraordinary at the same time which is a really fun opportunity. Absolutely we're really excited we hear great things about the show. Thanks for talking with us. Hi Jeff how are you doing today? How are you Allison?

I'm good. So it's a brand new series. Tell us a little bit about it from your perspective. Sure it's an adaptation of the famous Teen Titans comic book. Really looking at the Marvel from George Bresron and adapting those characters. So Dick Grayson after he's left Batman as Robin. Richard Roth who's Raven who is the daughter of a demonic entity and struggling with her own internal darkness.

Coriander Starfighter who's an alien and in the show when we meet her she has no memory of who she is or what she is. And finally I'm Gar Logan who's a teenager who was infected with a strange disease that ultimately gave him the ability to turn into animals. So you know they have a lot in common. You've had a long run with this show in terms of getting it created and it was going to be with a different group and now it's here where you are ended up.

Tell me a little bit about that journey for you as a producer. Yeah sure I mean Akiba Goldsman and I started working on this thing years and years ago and it's gone through a lot of changes and you know it's been a roller coaster trying to get it here but the fact that we're here this week is a lot of fun. But it was about passion and also just figuring out what Titans would be.

There was a point where Dick Grayson wasn't really in the show, wasn't allowed to be part of the Titans show and it never worked and we were like it's not going to work out that Dick Grayson and eventually we got him, we got everyone to give us permission to build the show around him and that's when the show really figured itself out. So I know it's based on Teen Titans but it's really much darker and more violent than Teen Titans was.

Are you afraid of maybe putting off some of those Teen Titans fans? I think there's a reason for the darkness. There's a reason that we look at Rachel's story and she's struggling with her internal darkness and Dick Grayson we wanted his story to mirror hers and he's struggling with a different kind of internal darkness and the violence just was born out of that.

When Marvin George did their comic books they pushed the envelope on stuff and that was in the 80s. So we need to really, for us we wanted to do something different and pushing the violence is supposed to startle you. You're supposed to look at Robin like Hawk and Dove do and react like what happened to you. Hi Ana, I love that. So you play Starfire who is an alien princess but at the beginning she doesn't know who she really is so tell me about that.

Yeah when we meet Starfire in the first episode she's been in an accident and has amnesia and does not know anything about herself or where she is or how she got there and that was fun to do. Tell me why it was fun, I would think it would be kind of confusing in here. No it's fun because then you just kind of get to wake up and pretend to be somebody else.

Yeah like me the first 10 minutes every morning I'm like where, not put bed in my hand but wait a minute, you know just trying to find that but that lasts for a bit longer for her. So how does she evolve throughout the season? You know her evolution is quite extraordinary considering that she doesn't remember much but yeah she goes through a lot of trauma and she learns to trust herself very quickly because she has nothing but her instincts guiding her and yeah she's seen too much but yeah she does evolve in a really cool way.

So a lot of what the theme has been so far has been about interpersonal struggles. Obviously she doesn't really know herself but does she have a certain sense that there are some inner struggles within her? Yeah she has this deep knowing that she's supposed to do something really important. You know like when you go to the grocery store and you're like I was supposed to get like something that I need.

No for me it's I walked into a room and why did I walk into a room? Every time oh my god it worries me. That feeling but like times a thousand right? So yeah there is this thing that she knows she's supposed to do. So the show's being described as dark and violent. Besides those two words give me one other word to sum up the season. Two words. Twisted fun.

Oh I like that. Yeah that's the best I think is yeah. Fantastic. We can't wait. Thanks so much. Nice talking to you. So let's talk about Hawk. He's described as an offensive bruiser. What does that mean? Oh nice. I didn't know he was being described that way but I like it and it makes sense. You know I mean I think people are offended by somebody who says what's on everybody's mind.

You know I don't know what kind of world do you want to live in? One where everybody's really brutally honest or one where everybody like sugarcoats everything. I would prefer the Hank Hall world you know. So you know you say offensive I say I say honest. You know and and he's a vigilante you know he he's going to take it into his own hands to make this world a better place and and it takes its toll on him.

But I think that's what I love about him. We were speaking with Minka about Dove and their kind of relationship so from your perspective how do you see the relationship going this season and the back story that we learn about them? Well if if she wasn't such a you know flirt maybe be going better. Looking at you Brenton Thwaites. No but I see. He's calling you out.

Wait a minute. Look this guy is so in love with Dawn. He'll do anything for her. He'd die without her and I don't think she's quite moved on from her past which is true for a lot of us. I mean a lot of us have a hard time even people that have been together for a very long time and truly do love each other. We still have images that pop up of like girlfriends or boyfriends from her past and the what ifs and you know I mean it's understandable that somebody would go through that but I think because somebody may be there and Hank is just this head over heels smitten kitten you know.

We love that. You know. I can see the two of you being really cute together so thanks for talking with us. We're really looking forward to seeing their relationship. Thanks I appreciate it. Thank you. Let's talk about Titans. This has been a long journey for you as one of those creators so it's based on Teen Titans but decidedly darker so why was the decision made to go in that direction?

Well you know the comics that were based the comic run that we're basing these on which are the Marv Wolfman and George Perez comics you know were very mature for that time you know and they were dealing with real psychological issues that we're dealing with here too. You know and one could call them adolescent issues or individuation issues but you know these are folks who are still in the shadow of their upbringings.

Pointedly Dick Grayson lives in the shadow of Batman and you know and is actually a kid who was weaponized at age 10. I mean it's not normal. So you know we wanted to sort of take these folks who are not quite kids but not really full on individuated adults or at least not their own adults yet. And it felt like an adolescent issue or a late adolescent issue which is really mid-20s so no more teen.

Which a lot of people struggle with going through that transition from teenager to adult certainly so I think a lot of people will relate to these characters. Talk to me about putting this cast together. We were just a lot of yeah I mean it's just a lot of good hard searching on the part of casting directors and us really wanting to be true to a few ideas that really matter I think today.

One is have the spirit of the character embodied in the actor. Be diverse. Be aware that we are painting a world the way we wish it looked and that that is our responsibility as storytellers and then get lucky. You're right. We got lucky. What do you want fans to take away from season one? I'd like them to see Robin in a way they haven't before. I think he's under explored.

And I'd like them to consider the realities of Bruce and Dick's relationship of what that might have really been like. I think that would be neat as an addition to canon. I'd like for them to have fun. So a little complex a little fun along the way a little violence. All right we got it. Well thank you we're really excited. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]