Young Justice fans were given a sneak peek at what’s in store for the upcoming fifth arc of the DC animated series’ fourth season, Phantoms.
Official HBO Max account Hero Mode recently tweeted a poster promoting Arc 5 of Young Justice: Phantoms, accompanied by the caption “New Gods and old friends, what could go wrong?” The poster confirms the show’s next five-episode arc will focus on Rocket, and feature Fourth World characters Orion, Metron and Mantis. It also teases the involvement of a member of the Green Lantern Corps (who resembles Tomar-Re) and Phantom‘s as-yet-unnamed, time-traveling antagonist.
Young Justice co-showrunners Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti recently explained why Phantoms takes a character-driven approach to arcs, and how they settle on the order the arcs appear in. “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 said. “In terms of the order of the arcs, the decision there was a combination of the overarching plot of the season and a desire to mix things up so that no two arcs in a row felt too similar.”
Weisman and Vietti also elaborated on the time jumps between each season of Young Justice. Weisman described the time jump mechanic as the best way to reflect the show’s underlying theme of growing up. Vietti added that time jumps were also a useful tool for injecting a bit of 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.
Shifting their focus to the wider franchise, the pair revealed the DC characters that were off-limits for Young Justice Season 1. According to Weisman and Vietti, Darkseid, the Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark incarnations of Wonder Girl, and the Ted Kord version of Blue Beetle were all embargoed when the first season was being developed. The showrunner duo also shared the significance of the number 16 to the series, with Vietti confirming Young Justice takes place on Earth-16 of the DC Multiverse.
Young Justice Season 4 – Part 2 is currently streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes released on Thursdays.
Source: Twitter