To say the history of animated superhero series on television is frustrating would be a massive understatement. For every iconic series that became a hit throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s, it feels like there are countless other promising projects that were cancelled far too soon. A Wolverine and the X-Men or Spider-Man Unlimited for every show as popular as Batman: The Animated Series, just to name a few. Time and time again, television has introduced audiences to innovative takes on unique characters only to pull the plug on viewers, but few recent cancellations have stung as much as Young Justice. A series that finally saw DC’s most iconic sidekicks unite, Young Justice is as famous for its rocky release schedule as it is for its dedicated fanbase, but the show was originally canned for a far more infuriating reason than most fans would imagine.
Originally airing its first episode on Cartoon Network at the tail end of 2010, Young Justice became something of a cult favorite after it went off the air in 2013. Thanks largely to the enthusiasm of its hard-won audience, the series returned for a third season on DC’s short-lived streaming service in 2019, then moved to what is now HBO Max for its fourth (and possibly final) season in 2021. Considering how many series fade quietly into obscurity following their cancellation notices, the fact that Young Justice was able to claw its way back into the spotlight twice is impressive, but it’s also irritating in hindsight. Had Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. simply allowed Young Justice to continue its run, the network could have spared many fans’ nerves, a fact which only makes the cause of the show’s initial cancellation that much more absurd.
‘Young Justice’ Was Originally Too Mature for Superhero Television
There are plenty of valid reasons to cancel a television series. As hard as it is to admit, some projects simply don’t land in the way their creators imagine, and when a show falls short of connecting with its audience, it’s reasonable that the powers behind a show would cut their losses and try again with something else. In Young Justice‘s case, however, what makes the series’ cancellation so disappointing is the fact that it was clearly doing well by traditional metrics. Moreover, while it’s impossible to know for certain what kind of decision-making fuels television cancellations behind closed doors, Paul Dini, the Batman icon largely responsible for the success of the animated series, did offer some insight into networks’ mindset back when Young Justice was first taken off the air.
Appearing on an episode of Kevin Smith‘s Fatman on Batman podcast, Dini compared Young Justice‘s cancellation to the prior cancellation of his own work, identifying what was then a recent trend in the industry to prioritize projects catering to a younger fan base. This attitude is what gave rise to projects like Teen Titans Go!, a much goofier successor to the more somber Teen Titans series of the early 2000s, but even more troubling, Dini also pointed to the industry’s desire to market series towards young boys as a contributing factor in the cancellation of more mature series, such as Young Justice. The belief among executives, Dini explained, was that girls don’t buy the same toys and merchandise as boys and therefore shouldn’t be as represented on television, making sillier, more masculine projects the top priority as opposed to more creative marketing strategies.
Thankfully, Greg Weisman, the co-creator of Young Justice, has since pushed back on the idea that his series was canceled because of a large female viewership but the issue of age nevertheless remains relevant. Since Young Justice was funded by toy company Mattel, the company’s decision to unceremoniously drop the series after its second season clearly reflected lacking sales, and it’s likely that Young Justice‘s more mature content played a role in those numbers. Considering younger children are most often associated with toy sales, the show inadvertently did itself a commercial disservice by angling towards an older audience, cutting off its own revenue stream by appealing to those less likely to fund Young Justice‘s renewal.
The Reason Behind ‘Young Justice’s Initial Cancellation Proves the Series Was Ahead of Its Time
While some might argue that Young Justice‘s approach to its source material was therefore unwise from a business perspective, time has vindicated the show in more ways than one. On the one hand, while the television landscape of the early 2010s may have prioritized toy sales over quality storytelling, the last decade has only proven that general viewers and comic book fans alike have a great appetite for well-told, mature superhero stories. On a very different scale, Hollywood has proven this time and time again, with the success of movies like Deadpool and Logan proving that costumed crusaders aren’t just for kids. Likewise, in the age of streaming, darker animated superhero stories like Invincible, X-Men ’97, and Harley Quinn have all succeeded because they embraced the full narrative potential of their characters’ dark tone.
In comparison, Young Justice was simply released at an awkward time in television history, a few years too early for streaming to immediately provide the creative freedom afforded to more recent series and too late to embrace the grittiness of the DC Animated Universe at the turn of the century. Nevertheless, what Young Justice did with its adult themes during the time provided for its initial run cannot be understated. By combining innovative writing, deep cuts into DC lore, and a compelling ensemble cast with relatable conflicts most young adults would be hard-pressed to find in any other superhero series at the time, Young Justice set a new standard for the genre on television and gifted a generation of fans new heroes to carry them through the years to come.
Related
It’s Time for DC Studios To Give This Animated Series the Ending It Deserves
Justice for a generation of superhero sidekicks!
The Damage from ‘Young Justice’s First Cancellation Still Hasn’t Been Undone
Weisman’s series has only continued to break boundaries in superhero storytelling since returning for its third and fourth seasons, dedicating significant screentime to queer storylines and mental health struggles that are often criminally overlooked in the genre, but the damage from Young Justice‘s initial cancellation still remains. Due in part to the stagnant storytelling and tedious release schedule of the show’s fourth season, Young Justice is once again on an indefinite hold, relegated back to that torturous creative limbo from which it may never return. Not only is the lack of any update on a potential fifth season a familiar frustration for fans, but it is also the latest in a long line of letdowns that began with the series’ initial cancellation.
At the end of the day, no creator should have to depend upon toy sales in order to fund their artistic vision, but it’s the sad reality that most creators are also forced to work within an environment that considers itself a business first. Like Static Shock and Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Young Justice is a show that suffered cancellation through no fault of its own, a series discarded by the same type of low toy sales and nonexistent corporate confidence that also ended its predecessors too soon. While it may seem depressing that factors completely unrelated to a show’s creativity can tank even the best television series, Young Justice‘s history of renewals serves as a reminder that the very audience it wasn’t supposed to earn can still ironically save the show, raising the prospect that someday the series itself will be able to deliver a conclusion that finally does the beloved story justice.
Young Justice is available to stream on HBO Max in the U.S.
