Young Justice is an American superhero animated television series developed by Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman for Cartoon Network. Despite its title, it is not a direct adaptation of Peter David, Todd Dezago and Todd Nauck's Young Justice comic series, but rather an adaptation of the entire DC Universe with a focus on teenage and young adult superheroes.[2][3]
The series follows the lives of teenage superheroes and sidekicks who are members of a fictional covert operation group referred to simply as 'the team'. Young Justice is essentially a young counterpart to the famous adult team, the Justice League.[4][5] The main setting is a fictional universe apart from the previous DCAU and other continuities (designated at one point as Earth-16[4]) during a time period in which superheroes are a relatively recent phenomenon.[6]
The series debuted with an hour-long special on November 26, 2010, with the airing of the first two episodes, "Independence Day" and "Fireworks".[7][8][9] Young Justice premiered on September 9, 2011, on Teletoon, in Canada.[10] After airing its second season, titled Young Justice: Invasion, the series was canceled alongside fellow DC Nation show Green Lantern: The Animated Series in the second quarter of 2013.
On November 7, 2016, Warner Bros. Animation announced that the series would be returning for a third season, titled Young Justice: Outsiders, which premiered on January 4, 2019, on DC Universe. On July 20, 2019, at San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced by series creators Vietti and Weisman that DC Universe had renewed the series for a fourth season.[11] On September 12, 2020, it was announced that the fourth season will be titled Young Justice: Phantoms.[12] "The Prize", an audio play that takes place between the events of the third and fourth seasons, was performed on DC FanDome on the same day.[13] On September 18, 2020, it was announced Young Justice will be moving to HBO Max.[14]
