New Young Justice League cartoon? (updated)

A very excited Stephanie Lemelin has just spilled the beans on her blog [dead link, see update at bottom of post] about a brand new Justice League cartoon called Young Justice League. She’s going to be voicing a character called Arrowette, a female version of Green Arrow, but other details are still under wraps. She says,

WOW.  Ok… I am beyond thrilled to announce that I was recently cast in the new animated series, YOUNG JUSTICE LEAGUE, based on the famous (and awesome!?) DC Comics. I seriously could not be more excited about being welcomed into this amazing family… what a fantastic way to start the new year! I will be voicing the character of Arrowette (see ridiculously hot avatar below!!! um, could I love her anymore?) as well as several supporting cast members… Due to the extreme popularity of this series, however, that’s about all I can say… for now. So excited, this is really a dream come true for me, I have ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A SATURDAY MORNING CARTOOON!!! Woohoo!

The decision to call the series Young Justice League is probably to distance it from the Teen Titans cartoon. For several years now we’ve seen the growth of an equivalent young(ish) Justice League in Smallville so that may also factor into this.

There have been two younger-character teams in the DC Universe, Teen Titans and Young Justice. The Titans began as a team made up of the teenage sidekicks (Robin, Speedy, Wonder Girl, Aqualad, etc) of the heroes in the Justice League (Batman, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, etc).Over time the Titans introduced more original characters and became a distinct group in their own right. It was this later version of the Teen Titans that was adapted for Glen Murakami’s Teen Titans cartoon (the heavily anime influenced one). Young Justice was a recreation of the original Teen Titans concept and was tied more closely to the understanding that these were characters who would one day inherit the mantle of the full Justice League.

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Updated several hours later to add: It would appear that Ms Lemelin spoke too soon as she’s taken down the above post from her blog (somebody wants to control when the series is announced). Rich Johnson at Bleeding Cool has received rumours that the official announcement is due at Comic Con and that the team will include Miss Martian, Aqualad, Nightwing, Impulse, Arrowette, and Connor Kent.

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And to add what I posted on twitter: A Young Justice League cartoon could work quite well as a rift on the Smallville League or the Wolverine and the X-Men style. I’d love it if it was tied into the DC Animated Universe, but that’s probably wishful thinking. Every reaction I’ve read to the leak about Young Justice League has been incredibly positive. I really hope Lemelin didn’t get into trouble.

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Updated again on 3rd Feb: Bleeding Cool has followed up their original post with the the following picture of an Aqualad, but didn’t name a source for it

However, Dan’s World identified the source as the twitter account of a gentleman called T-Rich (TdashRich). He was reading for the role of Aqualad back in November, but we don’t know if he got the gig. This is Tequan Richmond, the actor who plays Drew Rock from Everybody Hates Chris.

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Peter David, the writer of the now defunct Young Justice comic book, has been pestered by people asking if he’s involved in the new cartoon.On his blog he commented that,

You know as much as I know about it. Some of you may know more. No, I’m not scheduled to write for it, no, I haven’t been approached, yes, if they did, I’d leap at it ’cause I loved working with those characters.

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Updated on the 4th Feb: Titans Tower had a slightly different take on this story with a forum post they had found about Cartoon Network’s plans for for 2010/11. The quoted post said,

WB has 3 NEW series on their slate, Mystery INC- the new Scooby show, Young Justice, and Bruce Timms CG Green Lantern for 4Q 2011. ALL for Cartoon Network.

[...]

It’s Sorta THE Young Justice. They will be going out with this BIG TIME at Comic Con. From what I saw, it’s Martian Girl, Aqualad, Nightwing, Impulse, Arrowette, and Connor Kent. The poster gives me the tone that it’s a cross between JLU and TT. I liked the look a lot. It’s not quite Timm-style, but it’s not All Murikami’d out like Teen Titans.

This is similar to the roster reported by Bleeding Cool (probably where they were quoting from). However, the quoted forum post now appears to have been edited with the usual “I’ve probably said to much already.”

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The bottom line: So far we know that a new Young Justice League series based on the Young Justice concept is being developed by WB Animation for Cartoon Network, the emphasis is that this appears to be an ongoing series and not a direct-to-DVD feature. Arrowette is voiced by Steph Lemelin and Tequan Richmond has read for the role of Aqualad. Other characters include Martian Girl, Nightwing, Connor Kent, and Impulse. A big announcement is expected during July’s Comic Con.