Young Justice co-showrunners Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti revealed why they’ve included the number 16 in every episode of the DC animated series to date.
Weisman and Vietti divulged the number’s significance to the show on the official DC Comics blog. “Young Justice takes place on Earth-16 in the DC Multiverse,” said Vietti. Weisman added that while the original question acknowledged the numeral’s prominent use in Young Justice Seasons 3 and 4, it has actually appeared in “pretty much every episode in every season,” starting with the show’s pilot. “[T]urning the question back on you, why are you only noticing now?” he quipped.
Another key insight the showrunners offered up concerned which DC characters Young Justice couldn’t use in its first season. Weisman and Vietti confirmed that Darkseid, the Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark incarnations of Wonder Girl, and the Ted Kord version of Blue Beetle were off-limits while they were scripting Season 1. “We have no idea why those particular characters were off-limits,” Weisman said. “And obviously those restrictions were eventually lifted, as all four have since appeared in the series.”
The duo also discussed the time jumps between each season of Young Justice, including why they settled on a five-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2. “We wanted a big time jump between the first two seasons to truly illustrate what our series was about, i.e. GROWING UP,” Weisman said. Vietti further rationalized the DC animated series’ use of the time jump storytelling device as a way of injecting mystery into the start of each season. “We know our audience will want to know what happened between seasons and we can tease out the highlights over the course of a new season,” he said.
Weisman and Vietti acknowledged the greater focus on character-driven story arcs in Young Justice Season 4 during the Q&A, too. “We felt it was time — after two seasons where the plot drove most of our choices — to get back to the core characters of our series and see where each one was in their lives, a decade after we first met them,” Weisman explained.
Vietti then elaborated on how mixing up their approach every season ensured each new batch of episodes had a “unique feel,” keeping things fresh for themselves and the Young Justice fanbase. “Trying to break the mold a bit for each season keeps us on our toes creatively and hopefully defies audience expectations to some degree,” he said.
Young Justice Season 4 – Part 2 is currently streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes released on Thursdays.
Source: DC Comics
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