NYCC 2024: Teen Titans Go! Cast & Showrunner Know Why It’s The Longest Running Animated DC Series

Teen Titans Go! is a comedic take on DC’s Titans, which follows Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy as they do their best to stop crime, but often end up just finding themselves in trouble. It is hard to take them seriously, which is the fun of it all. The series debuted more than ten years ago, in 2013, has a feature film, and is celebrating its 400th episode soon.

This episode sees the Titans in stop-motion animation for the first time ever, as they celebrate being the longest-running DC animated series. The all-star cast all have other incredible projects they are a part of. However, they have created a true family with each other, which is incredible to witness. Cartoon Network will be playing all episodes of Teen Titans Go! ahead of the 400th episode premiere on November 30.

S creen Rant interviewed Pete Michail (Showrunner), Tara Strong (Raven), Greg Cipes (Beast Boy), Khary Payton (Cyborg), Hynden Walch (Starfire), and Scott Menville (Robin) at New York Comic-Con to discuss the upcoming 400th episode of Teen Titans Go!. They reveal what they think has resonated so much with different generations of fans over the years, as well as what it was like to see their characters in stop-motion animation. They also talk about their most memorable fan interactions.

Teen Titans Go! Has Resonated With So Many Because Fans Can Relate To The Characters

“I think there’s at least one character that everybody can identify with.”

Screen Rant: What do you think it is about Teen Titans Go! that has made it just last for so long and resonate with so many different generations?

Scott Menville: I’ll just say real quick and then I’ll let everybody else piggyback. The characters. I think there’s at least one character that everybody can identify with. There’s one that connects with somebody, if not all of the characters. They’re all misfits who somehow found each other and somehow love each other, even if they don’t always show it because Robin has baby hands.

Hynden Walch: In the original, it began as like the Breakfast Club with superheroes. That was kind of how they thought of it way in the beginning of the original show.

Greg Cipes: I think it’s our rebellious spirit really that’s so attractive.

Tara Strong: I think it’s that we all really love each other in real life and we’re a family. We’ve been together over 20 years and I think it was very smart for them to keep the same cast because the people that fell in love with the OG characters got to see us in a whole different world. But it’s still us and the show’s so funny. You can’t not laugh. I don’t think I’ve seen a show sustain with more fart jokes. Pete, I think you’re so genius at masters of the obvious jokes, things that you don’t think of that you’ve been thinking of but never verbalize.

I laugh so hard when I read the scripts. They’re authentically funny. The music’s great, the animation’s beautiful. Wait until y’all see what happens in episode 400. It’s next level. I think they’re always surprising fans and keeping it fresh even though it’s like the same people. It’s always some new crazy adventure

Greg Cripes: That Superman did us in though in 400.

Screen Rant: Think back to day one. Did you ever think this was going to be the longest-running DC animated series?

Scott Menville:​​​​​​​ Greg probably did.

Khary Payton: Here’s the thing, he’s not lying. It was funny. Scott and I tell the story all the time. We were working on a different project. Each of us was working with Greg and so we would fly to San Francisco to do this project and Greg would just obsess about the old show and how Teen Titans needs to come back. He literally made a spit in the hand and handshake contract with both of us and was like, are you agreed? And I was like, yes, I’m agreed.

And so every couple of months he’d be like, Ky, have you heard anything? Are we coming back? And I was like, no, I haven’t heard. What are you talking about? I was at WonderCon the year before we started back. Sam Register walks up to me who’s vice president of Warner Brothers animation at the president, well vice president at the time. And he said, we’re bringing Titans back. And I swear to you, within seconds, hey Khary, what’s going on? You heard anything about Titans? The man is a wizard.

Greg Cripes: When prayers go up, blessings come down.

Tara Strong: But also there’s so many factors that go into making a successful show and I think we’ve always been so blessed to have great writers, great animators, storyboard artists, musicians, as well as this beautiful cast that all love each other so much. So many factors have to go into bringing that magic, and we’ve been bringing it together for so long.

Pete Michail: And to add that, really none of us are here without the fans man. I mean they’re the ones who, and Sam being the biggest one of them. So yeah man, that’s why we’re here celebrating 400​​​​​​​ episodes.

Scott Menville: Speaking of the fans, one of the things we love is to see families come where the parents are like, we love this show too because the writers write jokes for us and this show is our happy place when things are getting us down in the world. And we love to hear that.

Tara Strong: I would argue that as a cast, we get more cosplayers than probably any cast or show and its entirety. We see Titans cosplay all the time. My favorite when they did. Did you guys see the old? It was like a family that did us when we were old. It was so funny. We were the old titans, and they dressed up as us.

Screen Rant: Speaking of the fans, do any of you have some favorite fan interactions that stick with you?

Khary Payton: The coolest ones are, there are some families that have come over the years to see us that’ll have a child with autism. And there have been a couple that literally listen to our show. It’s the only thing that calms ’em down if they are having anxiety or something like that. Listen, when we got together, we thought we were going to make a great TV show, and we were going to have fun, and it was going to be silly. You don’t think about the fact that it might affect someone on that level.

But the truth is that out of all the popular things, every once in a while when someone comes to a convention, there’s always a few that you can look in their eyes, and you know what they needed that. They were the kid who was getting home by themselves and the parents were working, and they sat there, and they found friends on television. All of these characters are all different colors. They all come from wildly different places, but they become family. I think that really resonates with people. And now those kids have grown up and some of those kids are having kids and a lot of them are having, a lot of them are having kids. We’re spanning generations and that’s something that I really didn’t expect, and I didn’t expect to be able to get to meet those people either, which is amazing.

Tara Strong: I have a favorite story. There was a girl dressed as Raven. She looked about 14 or 15 and she was talking and talking and talking and I looked over and I saw her mom crying. And we get that a lot, but there was something unusual. So I went to check on her and she said that her daughter was severely autistic and hadn’t spoken in five years. And when she heard I was coming, she didn’t stop talking.

We hear that a lot where it’s like this is the only chance I get to really relate to my child, and it’s so beautiful. And like you were saying about a personality that’s yours, the Titans represents so many different kinds of personalities where it’s like I didn’t know that I was special till I saw Raven or Starfire or I thought I had no friends until I started watching this show, and we talked to each other. And the other thing that Khary was saying, when you’re doing a show on stage, you get instant feedback. But when we’re doing a cartoon, we don’t really know how the fans are going to interact. So when we come, and we meet the fans, and they say how much what we did means to them, it really warms our hearts.

Showrunner Pete Michail Has Wanted To Do A Stop-Motion Episode For A Long Time

“For multiple reasons, and it just never worked out.”

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Screen Rant: Where did the stop-motion idea come from?

Scott Menville: Just when you think these guys can’t blow our minds anymore, Pete and the team continue to blow our minds.

Pete Michail: We’ve been wanting to do a stop-motion special for years, for multiple reasons, and it just never worked out. Then we hit this milestone, and we pitched to Sam Register, our great leader, and he loved the idea, and we were off and running. I want to tease everything right now, and I’ll tell you about it, but —

Khary Payton: Tell them to watch November 30th when this thing comes out.

Scott Menville​​​​​​​: I believe Cartoon Network is showing all the Titans episodes in order up to 400, which is pretty crazy.

Screen Rant: What was it like to see your characters in stop-motion?

Scott Menville​​​​​​​: I grew up watching stop-motion, so it’s another bucket list. I mean, we got animated as ourselves into the 200. That was bucket list. Being stop-motion characters is bucket list. It’s like, so thank you. Just like a lot of Titans episodes, there’s a killer musical number in it. There’s some battle action and there might be some toilet humor in there too.

Hynden Walch: And we all look really, really cute in stop-motion. Adorable, actually.

Scott Menville Is The Heart Of The Teen Titans Go! Series

“So much of the exposition and just the driving nature of the show is from Scott’s energy.”

Screen Rant: Do you think you would get along with them in real life, if you met your character, if you came face-to-face?

Scott Menville​​​​​​​: Sadly, I’ve learned how much I am like Robin obsessing over stupid little things sometimes. Why is this traffic not moving?

Khary Payton: No, he is like Robin. But more like the old school Robin because he holds this crew down. He’s the heart of our show.

Tara Strong: Literally, he worked so hard. So much of the exposition and just the driving nature of the show is from Scott’s energy. I remember in the Night Begins to Shine episode he also played the hawk that sang outside. And to watch him literally sing as he’s flapping his wings, and just giving it his all, I’m like, this is amazing. This should be the show. What I’m watching right here.

Scott Menville: You’re very kind. I’m nothing without my team. But also to be clear, I come in for four hours and record my session and I’m gone. Pete and the crew are living this show many, many, many hours a day, day after day after day, grinding it out. And so somehow they still have the intestinal fortitude to keep soldiering on 400 episodes in, which is amazing.

Screen Rant: Pete, which character do you think you would get along with most?

Pete Michail: Starfire is the heart of the team. She really is.

Will Miss Minutes Come Back To The MCU?

Tara Strong would love to play her again, as well as do a crossover with Teen Titans Go!

Screen Rant: Tara, will we ever see Miss Minutes in the MCU again?

Tara Strong: I could tell you, but then I’d have to prune you and it would be bad. I hope she comes back. She’s such a fun character. When I first auditioned, I didn’t even know what the show was, it was so top secret. And then when I was on the Zoom, it was over Covid, and they’re like, it’s Loki. I was like, oh my gosh. Again, we talk about the fans having this character that initially is giving exposition, but also with a very sweet voice that you could die if you don’t do what I say. To have her blow up with the fans so much has been so rewarding. So it’s great.

Greg Cripes: In Teen Titans Go! she’s going to play Miss Seconds.

Tara Strong: That would be actually be great. That would be pretty fun to have a crossover actually, one day.

Pete Michail: She would be a digital clock.

Scott Menville​​​​​​​: Tara’s on My Little Pony, but we have pretty pretty pegasus on Teen Titans Go!.

Tara Strong: It’s always fun when they do that for the fans.

About Teen Titans Go! 400th Episode Celebration

This follow-up to the popular “Teen Titans” series takes a more comedic look at the superheroes, showing what life is like for the teens when their capes come off. Funny things happen to Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg between saving the world and being regular teens, living together without adult supervision.

The teens, in their ordinary lives, deal with the everyday issues of adolescence that include such important things as having staring contests to determine who does the laundry and going on a series of quests to construct the perfect sandwich. But, of course, the heroes still fight crime in Jump City when the need arises. Whatever the situation, they’re always ready for an adventure — inside the house or out of it.

Cartoon Network will be playing all episodes of

Teen Titans Go!

ahead of the 400th episode premiere on November 30.

Source: Screen Rant Plus