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EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros is making a big move in digital with one of its flagship brands. Warner Bros and DC Entertainment are behind a new, DC-branded service that will debut in 2018 with two high-profile comic book-themed original TV series: the live-action Titans, from the king of the CW DC universe Greg Berlanti, Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, Sarah Schechter and Warner Bros TV, and the anticipated revival of cult animated series Young Justice, from Warner Bros Animation. It will be titled Young Justice: Outsiders.

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Halpern, Schumacker and Lorey dabbled in the superhero comedy series space with their stint as executive producers on NBC/Warner Bros. TV single-camera comedy Powerless last season.

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Robin is all suited up and ready to leave the nest.
Warner Bros. Television on Friday released the first official image of Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson (aka Batman’s red-suited sidekick) from the upcoming drama Titans, debuting on DC’s yet-untitled streaming service in 2018.

Robin’s new suit, an updated version of his classic costume, was designed by Laura Jean Shannon, whose work has been seen on screens both big (Iron Man) and small (The CW’s upcoming Black Lightning).
From executive producers Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter, Titans follows a group of superheroes in training, assembled by Robin, who steps out of Batman’s shadow to serve as the team’s leader.

The series also stars Anna Diop (24: Legacy) as Koriand’r/Starfire, Teagan Croft as Raven, Ryan Potter (Big Hero 6: The Series) as Garfield Logan/Beast Boy, Alan Ritchson (Blood Drive) as Hank Hall/Hawk, Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) as Dawn Granger/Dove and Lindsey Gort (The Carrie Diaries) as Detective Amy Rohrbach.

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DC Entertainment has revealed its rollout plans for its highly anticipated standalone streaming service, DC Universe.

The company on Thursday announced that beta access to DC Universe will first open in August (exact date TBA), before a formal launch this fall. Those interested in having this early access to the subscription service can sign up to be considered at DCUniverse.com.

“DC Universe is so much more than a streaming service. It’s a welcoming place for everyone to immerse themselves in their own level of DC fandom, with the epic characters, stories and experiences they have come to expect from DC,” Jim Lee, chief creative officer of DC Entertainment, said in a statement. “We are investing in and creating original, high-quality shows including the new Titans series, and curating the most beloved nostalgic content, while at the same time elevating the comic reading experience to new heights. Nothing this robust has ever been offered to fans before.”

As previously announced, DC Universe will be home to original live-action series, including the aforementioned Titans, as well as Titans offshoot Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing. Also in the works are animated series Harley Quinn and Young Justice: Outsiders.

In addition, the streaming service will offer a vast library of past titles, including TV series The Adventures of Superman, Batman: The Animated Series, Constantine, The Flash (1990), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Wonder Woman. Film titles will include the Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, the Christopher Reeve Superman series and animated films Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Green Lantern: First Flight and Wonder Woman. The service will also offer be home to a rotating selection of comics.

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The site will launch later this fall, and the company says that it’ll be competitively priced against services like Netflix. It’ll cost $7.99 a month or $74.99 for an annual subscription. Subscribers who preorder will get an additional three months for free.

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Like other subscription streaming services (including behemoths like Netflix or Amazon to the more modest ones like Stargate Command), it’s not enough to just offer a library of existing content. Original productions are what will draw in new subscribers and viewers. To that end, DC, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Television, will bring five original shows to the platform, in addition to offering a slate of existing live-action and animated works. DC says that while other major offerings, like the recent Wonder Woman and Justice League films and the CW’s Arrowverse universe of live action shows, are already on other platforms, users will still be able to rent or purchase episodes through DC Universe.

The company will roll its original series out over the course of a year. The shows — three live-action (Titans, Doom Patrol, and Swamp Thing) and two animated series (Young Justice: Outsiders, and Harley Quinn) — will collectively bring enough new material to the platform to release a new episode each week. Titans will lead the way when the service launches.

The service will also go beyond streaming video and include a massive comic book library. It won’t include the company’s entire back catalog, but it will be a select offering of 2,000 to 3,000 titles. These can be read on a phone, tablet app, or television. During a press briefing, DC representatives demonstrated the feature, which allows readers to display an entire page of a comic book or scroll through panel by panel. Moreover, they noted that while reading a comic book on a television screen might be a bit counterintuitive, it turns it from a solitary activity into one that can be shared by a group of people. Whether people will gather around a television screen to read a comic like they’d watch the newest episode of the latest hit television show remains to be seen, but the demonstration looked cool. Users will be able to blow up the individual panels of a comic to 4K resolution to show off the artwork in a whole new way.

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Given the overwhelming number of streaming services out there already, users are hard-pressed to sign up for a new one. The quality of DC Universe’s original content won’t be known until they premiere, but it has some huge pluses in its favor. It brings the vast wealth of content — television, movies, comics, news, and supplementary databases — all under one roof, and it will hopefully foster a community that will continue to return for more.

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While titles will rotate in and out of the service on a regular basis, upon launch, fans will be able to gain access to full runs of series including Y: the Last Man, American Vampire, and 52. Not only is the service full of DC mainstays such as the aforementioned titles and books like The Dark Knight Returns, we were able to locate a variety of lesser known DC titles available on the app during the press preview, including an old Ambush Bug miniseries and Cosmic Boy. We didn’t see evidence that extreme deep cuts like Thriller or Hawkworld were available for download, which otherwise would have made this app a godsend for hardcore DC fans and a more direct competitor to Marvel Unlimited, but its clear that even with that catalog as it currently stands, there are titles sure to appeal to fans both new and old.

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Then, moving away from comics and towards the TV/Film side of things, while DC did not show us any of their upcoming exclusive television content, they did showcase the variety of legacy titles that will be available to stream on the app from day one. Disappointingly, none of the Christopher Nolan Batman films nor any of the current DCEU film slate, including 2017’s Wonder Woman, will be available to stream from day one on the app. Instead, users will be presented with a healthy mix of older live action films such as the Richard Donner Superman titles, animated movies, and animated series like Static Shock. Streaming video was quick and painless with little outstanding to note but also little to criticize.

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