Ahead of the 400th episode of Teen Titans Go!, the show's cast and showrunner spoke with The Direct and took a look back at the impact of the long-running DC series (and its predecessor, 2003's Teen Titans) after all these years.
Seven years after the fifth and final season of the original, more serious (but still family-friendly) Teen Titans animated series ended with an unresolved cliffhanger, the show saw a complete reboot in 2013.
It became the now eight-season-long Teen Titans Go!, an irreverent, satirical series on Cartoon Network. The reboot brought back all five members of the original cast, but otherwise looked starkly different from its previous iteration.
Each version of the show, of course, has its own fans, but many have been following the adventures of the Teen Titans — however they look, and whatever tone their stories take — for more than 20 years now, with Teen Titans Go! hitting 400 episodes this season.
Teen Titans Go! Team Discusses Original 2003 Series and Changes Since
Speaking with The Direct's Gillian Blum at New York Comic Con, the cast and showrunner of Teen Titans Go! looked back on the more than two decades they have spent with this DC team, reflecting on what has changed from the original series to the 400th episode of the reboot.
Tara Strong (Raven) explained that to her, the 2003 series and Teen Titans Go! are such different animals that they "could probably do both at the same time," adding that both the cast and the fans "really would love to have a season six" of the former:
"I don't want to get in trouble for this, but I feel like they're both so different that we could probably do both at the same time, you know, like, I feel like the fans really would love to have a season six, which we would, too. And I feel like they're so different that we could probably do them both at the same time."
Strong also added that all the way back when the cast "first started working together" on the 2003 show, they "certainly all knew [they'd] all be together forever." Greg Cipes (Beast Boy) called it their "eternal entourage:"
Strong: "We knew when we first started working together the OG Teen Titans, that we had something really special. And we certainly all knew we'd all be together forever. I think we're gonna be together forever, next lifetime, wherever we go after this."
Cipes: "We're an eternal entourage."
Scott Menville (Robin) talked about how the shift from the original series to the Teen Titans Go! reboot was a little jarring for him at first, saying that the 2013 version felt "like a 180 from the original Robin."
Despite the "loyalty to the character" he really clung to early on, after a couple episodes, Menville said, he really understood that he was playing with a completely new set of rules for Teen Titans Go!, saying, "now I have fun going nuts:"
"I may have had the hardest time out of everybody coming in because, Robin was... It's like a 180 from the original Robin. I'm going nuts and going crazy on 'Teen Titans Go!' and I felt a loyalty to the character, and I felt very protective. And I was like, 'No, Robin wouldn't do that. Robin wouldn't say that.' And then a couple episodes in, I finally got it. And so now I have fun going nuts"
He also talked about how while the new show does have a "target demographic" different from that of the original series, Teen Titans Go! is written "on two levels," and it is full of "jokes that the kids don't get that are for the parents."
Menville added that for many, even if they are not parents, they find that Teen Titans Go! is their "happy place" for "when stuff's going bad at work, or when there's bad political stuff in the world:"
"What's so interesting to me is there was that target demographic, but because our writers write on two levels. There's jokes that the kids don't get that are for the parents we have so many parents, or people who don't even have kids that are in their '30s, '40s, that come up and go ''Teen Titans Go!' is my happy place. Like when stuff's going bad at work, or when there's bad political stuff in the world, or whatever, I'll come home and just like, watch it, and it makes me happy.' And so I love that our writers write on — firing on — two different levels."
Hynden Walch (Starfire) shared how much she loves "that this warped, twisted show of high satire" has, in the end, played "a huge part in shaping Gen Z:"
"I think it's amazing that this warped, twisted show of high satire that is also very funny is having a huge part in shaping Gen Z. I love Gen Z, they're so random and awesome!"
As for Khary Payton (Cyborg), the whole experience of Teen Titans Go! has been about "loving." He specified that this does not just apply to those who have always supported the reboot, but that this was about the people who "were upset that it wasn't just like the old show" too, as "even their hate, we've spent time loving:"
"It's been given love this whole time, and there have been so many, you know, when the show started and people were upset that it wasn't just like the old show... But slowly, we've been able to win, you know, almost everybody over because we've spent so much time loving, even their hate, we've spent time loving, you know, and I think that's just, it's a testament to what we're doing."
Teen Titans Go! Cast and Showrunner on 400 Episodes
Everyone from Teen Titans Go! who spoke with The Direct had so much gratitude for having reached 400 episodes — a milestone that no other DC animated series has gotten to yet.
Cipes said with a mix of both joking and earnestness that "400 more are coming," and Walch shared that the cast was all "feeling pretty good at 200," let alone 400.
Menville noted that when the voice actors themselves were put into the 200th episode, their depictions were all "pretty true to life:"
Walch: "We were feeling pretty good at 200 when they animated us! The most meta..."
Menville: "It's fun, and pretty true to life if you look at, at least, our little section about the recording studio in that one."
Showrunner Pete Michail is simply proud "that we're here talking to you about the 400th episode," and that the show "made it this far:"
"One thing I'm most proud of is just that we're here talking to you about the 400th episode we made it this far, and that the audience and the fans are still, still loving what we're doing, hopefully, right?"
The full set of interviews from NYCC can be seen below:
The 400th Episode Celebration of Teen Titans Go! will air on the Cartoon Network on November 30 at 9 a.m. EST.
Gillian Blum has been a writer at The Direct since 2022, reporting primarily from New York City. Though she covers news from across the entertainment industry, Gillian has a particular focus on Marvel and DC, including comics, movies, and television shows. She also commonly reports on Percy Jackson, Invincible, and other similar franchises.
