Does DC Universe have original shows?

As mentioned above, the original shows on DC Universe will kick off with Titans, a gritty and dark series following Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) and a rag-tag group of soon-to-be superheroes including Starfire (Anna Diop), Raven (Teagan Croft), and Beast Boy (Ryan Potter). Clearly, it won't exactly be Teen Titans Go. Instead, the series, which comes from executive producers Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, Greg Berlanti, and Sarah Schechter, will explore more adult material. For comic book readers that's nothing new, but the first trailer might be jarring for fans of the more clean-cut DC series that air on the CW, like The Flash, Supergirl, and Arrow. If your most recent memories of Robin are Chris O'Donnell in the '90s Batman movies, Titans might be a rude awakening.

Titans feels like a gamble, but it's not the only card the company has up its sleeve. In addition to Titans, DC Universe will be the home of two more live-action series -- adaptations of Swamp Thing and Doom Patrol -- and two animated shows, Harley Quinn and Young Justice: Outsiders. Release dates have not been announced for those shows, but we know Swamp Thing will be written by Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica, Daredevil) and Gary Dauberman (IT), and Doom Patrol will feature April Bowlby as Elastigirl and Orange Is the New Black'sDiane Guerrero as Crazy Jane. Fresh off a talked-about turn on FX's Trust, Brendan Fraser was also recently cast as Robotman/Cliff Steele.

We also know that Bowlby will appear as Elastigirl on Titans, confirming that the shows on DC Universe will take place in a shared universe, not unlike the CW's larger Arrow-verse or Netflix's Marvel series. That type of connectivity should be appealing to fans, but one hopes that each show will still be able to establish its own singular identity. A character like Swamp Thing, who has connections to the horror genre, will likely require a very different approach compared to a Doom Patrol adaptation.

How different will each show be? In a recent interview with Slash Film, Swamp Thing writer Dauberman said that the show would take inspiration from Alan Moore's acclaimed version of the character, and that it would be as "hard R as we could." Until the shows debut, we'll just have to wait and see.