Titans showrunner teases final episodes, what's up with Dick and Kory
Teen Titans go... to the end of their live-action series! Since Titans season 4 paused at its midpoint back in December, we have learned that this is the final season of the Max (formerly HBO Max) superhero series that began in 2018. But showrunner Greg Walker tells EW that he and his team figured the end was coming.
"Once a show matures and you get on in years, you're like, 'we better treat this as the last one,'" Walker says. "So we did that with this one from the beginning, and we really wanted to make sure that we didn't leave anything unattended. I've been on shows before where we didn't do that, we didn't write the season finale as a series finale, and I really regretted that we pulled some punches and left some openings. So I thought well, let's go for it all the way and really make a positive experience for the characters and fans."
Walker continues, "so many people are so invested in these characters, so we really talked about the endings that we'd want to see for them. It was especially challenging pushing the Dick/Kory duo to a point where it really felt like we'd come closer to the promise of what the comic books set up."
HBO MAX Anna Diop and Brenton Thwaites in 'Titans.'
The last time we saw these superheroes, they were getting their butts kicked by Brother Blood (Joseph Morgan), who had finally ascended to his true power as the son of Trigon. But in this week's new episodes that kicked off the back half of season 4, the team doesn't go right into another battle with the Trigon cult. Instead, they get shunted into a strange community called Caul's Folly that seems to exist in a parallel universe.
Dick (Brenton Thwaites) and Kory (Anna Diop) wake to find themselves living as a married couple in a self-contained small town. Creepy vibes escalate as it becomes clear that the longer they remain in this community, the more they'll lose their memories of who they actually are. The episode's title ("Dick and Carol and Ted and Kory") nods to the 1969 swinger film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, but Walker tells EW that a different film had a bigger impact on the episode.
"We wanted to go for the feel of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the sense that you're in this town where you can lose who you are," Walker says. "I watched the Philip Kaufman Invasion of the Body Snatchers a lot in preparation for this, to really get a sense of what is it like when you look at everyone around you and you don't know if they're themselves or if they've lost who they are. That fear of losing your essence, your soul. For our characters, that's their memories of being together and who they are, this foundational story they've had over the last four years. We really wanted to play the horror that way."
HBO MAX Dick (Brenton Thwaites) and Kory (Anna Diop) in 'Titans' season 4.
Although many team members have come and gone over the course of four seasons, Dick and Kory have both been part of Titans since the very first episode. Fans of the Titans from their DC comic books and animated shows know that Nightwing and Starfire are often the group's one true romantic pairing, and the Titans team thought a lot over the years about how they might reach their own version of that.
"If the end destination was some form of intimate connection, it was really important to figure out how to get there in a way that didn't feel like we're just doing because it's in the books," Walker says. "It was a struggle for them and it was a struggle for us to figure out what felt right. But I think that at the end of season 3 and going into season 4, where they were literally co-leaders of the team, and then getting to a point where it looks like they may not be able to be together because of her destiny, it softens them. We played around with Easter eggs and the red balloon and the baby, but the challenge was, 'how can we accelerate this as fast as possible that still feels credible to who these characters are?'"
The first eight episodes of Titans season 4 are streaming now on Max, with the series finale set for May 11. We'll find out by then if Dick and Kory will end up together after all.
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