Reshoots seem to be a big trend for recent DC properties, as Titans also saw significant alterations. Just how much did they transform the show? The first season of the DC Universe streaming service’s original series appears to have been popular, but it’s not without its faults when viewed through a critical lens. Characters drop in and out of focus, arcs aren’t quite resolved, and there are a few moments that are confusing rather than effective.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Titans was subjected to extensive reshoots, which cut an original 13-episode first season down to just 11 episodes. The story seems to have been compressed and refocused, and according to showrunner Greg Walker the original season finale has been “cannibalized” to become the season 2 premiere. Of course, it’s impossible to know whether the pre-reshoot version of Titans was better than the one currently available on DC Universe; presumably additional photography was conducted for a reason, after all. What is certain, though, is that the reshoots made dramatic changes to Titans’ overarching narrative and structure.
Here, we’re going to critically assess what is known - and what can be deduced - about the reshoots. How did Titans change shape as a result of additional photography, and what was achieved through it?
- This Page: The Reshoots Focused on Dick Grayson Next Page: The Finale Was Cut
The Reshoots Seem To Have Focused On Dick Grayson
There’s substantial evidence that the reshoots led to an increased focus on Brenton Thwaites’ Dick Grayson, strengthening his character arc and essentially making him the star of the show. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Thwaites revealed that even the iconic “F*** Batman” line was added during additional photography. “We’d already shot that alley fight scene before,” he explained, “and there was no punch to it. There was no real exclamation mark. I think the producers wanted something that would kind of set the tone for the whole show.” He seems to have been right, given the prominence that line played in the show’s initial marketing.
The Dick Grayson of Titans is hugely conflicted about his past, struggling to escape the shadow of the Batman. The reshoots amplified that arc, with some key moments actually added into the mix. Take episode 7, ‘Asylum’, which was intended to be some sort of turning point for Dick as he burns his Robin costume, putting his old life behind him. While this made sense, it came out of the left-field - not least because all previous glimpses of the suit in that episode were part of Dick’s hallucinations. Behind-the-scenes photos have explained this by showing Thwaites wearing that costume in scenes from far later in the series, suggesting the major character moment was added after principal photography had been completed.
This change in focus had a strange effect; it essentially made Batman the main villain of Titans season 1, a background presence whose ruthlessness and violence overshadowed the entire series. Curiously, though, there is some evidence that the show’s portrayal of Batman may have also changed a little. In an interview with IGN before the show’s premiere, Thwaites suggested that the Titans version of Batman was envisioned as a vigilante who kills his foes. “Batman is a killer and Robin wants to get away from that,” Thwaites pointed out, explaining why Dick had left Batman and Gotham City behind him. “The idea is that he doesn’t want to become a killer himself… it’s pretty clear in the series that he was with Batman, Batman crossed the line and he was teaching [Dick] to do the same thing, and he’s trying to break away from that.” This flatly contradicts the season finale, ‘Dick Grayson’, which was set in a dystopian nightmare-world where Dick learned Batman was about to cross the line and headed back to Gotham to stop him. It’s possible some of the scenes from the finale - including some of those in which Batman had killed members of his rogues’ gallery - were originally envisioned as flashbacks, but were repurposed as hallucinations.
Page 2 of 2: What Happened To The Other Character Arcs?
The Trigon Plot Is Left Unresolved
The increased focus on Dick Grayson came at a cost; the Trigon plot, which was ostensibly the A-plot of the entire season, was compressed and ultimately left unresolved. Early episodes titled ‘Starfire’ and ‘Rachel’ (presumably focused on those characters) were cut down into a single episode, ‘Origins’, while the focus of ‘Asylum’ appears to have changed; the episode was originally called ‘Angela’, suggesting a bigger focus on Raven’s mother, which makes sense with an original focus more centered on Trigon. The pre-reshoot version may have played more toward the Trigon plot than the new Dick Grayson focused plot, which would explain why that episode ended up getting a much bigger focus on Dick, including the addition of his burning suit.
Trigon was always envisioned as the show’s “big bad,” but there’s some evidence he was defeated in the original season finale. During an interview with TVLine, Thwaites talked about a final boss battle that “requires us all to band together, to use all our skills to overcome him.” In the end, though, that season finale was dropped from the series when Titans was renewed for a second season. Showrunner Greg Walker decided to save Trigon for that, ending the first season on a cliffhanger. “We thought it was such a good cliffhanger at the end of 11,” Walker explained, “and we wanted to go for an even bigger, better Season 2 opener… Because Trigon’s role in canon is so huge, we felt like we really needed to give him a really big episode, the kind you can launch a season with.” Far from being defeated by the Titans, then, it sounds as though Trigon will remain on Earth as the recurring threat for season 2.
All Other Character Arcs Were Cut Or Reduced
All these changes ultimately meant a lot of character arcs were never completed. Beast Boy’s seems to have been truncated; he’s almost entirely absent from the first few episodes, and it seems likely there was an extended subplot building up to ‘Doom Patrol’, which was originally episode 5 but got moved forward. Episodes centered upon Starfire and Raven were combined into the third chapter, ‘Origins’, which inevitably meant aspects of their stories were cut too; that’s particularly surprising given Walker has described Starfire’s amnesiac quest in Europe as one of his favorite plots. Looking towards the end of the series, all the Titans appear to have lost the resolution of their character arcs as a result of the reshoots. Anna Diop had promised that Starfire would eventually don her comic-book costume, and it’s been seen in behind-the-scenes photos - but she never wore it in the series itself. Likewise, there are promotional photos showing Raven in costume. It seems probable that both these developments would have been part of the pre-reshoots series finale. And Ryan Potter has suggested Beast Boy would have gotten something of a power-up in the finale, too.
Secondary characters suffered as well. Again, set photos have shown Jason Todd suited up as Robin in Starfire’s factory. That’s quite significant. Hawk and Dove were tasked with finding Jason, so it may indicate that all three heroes teamed up with Dick Grayson and Starfire by episode 10, and were presumably part of the season finale. The irony, of course, is that these three characters were among the most popular in Titans season 1, so some moments will naturally have been cut there. It may be the cuts were necessary in order to streamline the series so it wouldn’t feel unfinished after the finale was dropped.
Of course, it’s difficult to say whether the slimming-down of other character roles was intentional, or merely an accidental side-effect of the other major changes being made to the structure of Titans. It’s possible DC realized that some of Raven’s arc, for example, simply didn’t work - and thus decided to reduce their focus upon her. Alternatively, it could just as easily be a result of their desire to make the show all about Dick Grayson. It will be fascinating to watch future interviews in order to get a sense of DC’s goals in this regard; hopefully more information will eventually be forthcoming.
What can be said for certain, though, is that the reshoots definitely attempted to make Dick Grayson the center of the show, and to shunt the Trigon plot to the beginning of season 2. Strangely, it looks as though the early renewal of Titans may have done more harm than good, damaging the overall narrative flow of the story, and thus leading to an unsatisfying conclusion to the series. Meanwhile, while Brenton Thwaites’ Dick Grayson was a compelling character, the focus upon him led to the rest of the Titans being sidelined. Hopefully season 2 won’t suffer from the same problems, and the overall quality of Titans will improve.
