Interesting Update on Major Max Show Fans Think Was Canceled

The fate of the DC Universe series Young Justice may not be sealed. After reports surfaced in August 2022 that HBO Max — now simply Max — would not be moving forward with a fifth season of the former Cartoon Network show, Young Justice's storyboard revisionist and comic book artist Christopher Jones clarified that the show was never canceled and that allegedly there is "ambition to do more."

Jones made the comments to Cartoon Base while offering some clarity on those cancellation reports, instead explaining that "there was no clear expectation for it to keep going." While "people seem to have the idea that the default was that Young Justice was going to keep going season after season unless someone stepped in to pause or cancel it," Jones said "the reality is that after the initial 2-season run on Cartoon Network it was doing so well streaming on Netflix that it started to generate interest in some kind of revival." 

It was at that point that "DC started planning to launch their own streaming platform," something that became DC Universe, and decided to commit to producing Young Justice Outsiders – a 1 season commitment." When the short-lived DC Universe streaming service launched, it had a third season of Young Justice, which debuted in January 2019, and when "the entire DC Universe platform got folded into the new HBO Max platform," Max ordered Young Justice Phantoms, the fourth season of the show. Jones noted that it was "again a single-season commitment."

Jones explained that "there was no clear expectation for it to keep going" past Young Justice Phantoms, and so the current lack of a Young Justice Season 5 order does not necessarily mean the show has been canceled. In fact, Jones went on to reveal that the show's producers Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti "have the *ambition* to do more and a roadmap of plotlines they'd like to explore." However, there are currently no concrete plans in place for Young Justice to return to the screen, as "it's a question of convincing the powers that be to spend the money and commit to making more."

"Given the shifting landscape of the streaming universe, the recent transformation of Warner Brothers into Warner Brothers Discovery, and the creation of DC Studios under James Gunn and Peter Safran, there are a LOT of variables at play," Jones shared. "So a lot of things can happen but I couldn't begin to guess at a timeline."

Loosely based on DC's super team, Young Justice centered around sidekicks such as Robin (voiced by Jesse McCartney), Kid-Flash (voiced by Jason Spisak), and Aqualad (voiced by Khary Payton). The series debuted on Cartoon Network in 2010, though its original run only lasted two seasons. The series was then picked up for a third season, Outsiders, before it moved to HBO Max for Phantoms.