Image source: Young Justice Wiki
It’s been two week since the animated Young Justice series (and Green Lantern) came to an abrupt end on Cartoon Network’s DC Nation block, but for many fans, the pain of losing their favorite show remains fresh in their minds. The Young Justice community has been very vocal over the series cancellation, with some trying to find ways to bring it back through means of petitions, experimental crowdfunding websites, and simple letters from the show’s youngest fans. However, the one who’s been surprising quite over this whole ordeal is the series’ writer and producer, Greg Weisman, who was essential in adapting the comic book series to animation. Now, on the Ask Greg section of the Gargoyles fansite, Weisman expressed his thoughts on Young Justice’s unplanned demise and the spin-offs he pitched to keep the show alive.
Originally asked on January 04, 2013, Weisman answered a fan’s questions about how speculation of Young Justice’s cancellation affects the team’s morale and if he tried to pitch Warner Bros. any Earth 16 titles. With time passing quite a bit since the question was asked, Weisman used this opportunity to address what happened during and after Young Justice’s cancellation to his fans:
We finished the scripts for Invasion in January of 2012. So that’s when I stopped getting paid, because although I’m a producer on the series, that title and even the responsibilities that go with it were, in essence, a courtesy, based on my experience, I guess. With a guy as talented and competent as Brandon on the job, Warners didn’t feel any need to pay me to do the post-production on YJ. They had no problem with me participating, but they also had no problem with me walking away. (Same with Season One, by the way.) (And it was the same at Sony vis-a-vis The Spectacular Spider-Man. In animation, writers often aren’t valued all that much once the script process is completed. From the point of view of these companies, I was really just a story editor with a glorified title, who was willing to do what he had to do in order to make the title real and NOT glorified.)
He then talks about the freelance work he did for Warner Bros and on other animated series:
On one level, I probably should have walked away. But instead, I worked for free, helping to post the episodes with Brandon from January to October of 2012. Simultaneously – because I do need to earn a living – I did a number of freelance scripts for various series, including one for Warners’ Beware the Batman, plus a Transformers Prime, a couple of Kaijudos, a couple Rescue Bots and a couple of Octonauts. Plus, there was the YJ comic, a few miscellaneous things, and I was also working on revising my first novel, Rain of the Ghosts. Oh, and Brandon and I were also giving free input on Legacy, as well. So I was plenty busy.
Afterwards, Weisman discussed the Young Justice spin-off projects he and Brandon Vietti pitched:
During that period, Brandon and I (both separately and together) pitched all sorts of further Earth-16 properties, including (but not limited to) a third season (of course), animated spin-offs featuring Arsenal and/or the Arrow Family, a comic book entitled Earth-16, the Black Manta Celebrity Hot Tub shorts, a direct to DVD movie, etc. Brandon even pitched a YJ meets Scooby movie. Unfortunately, none of these were in the cards.
Finally, Weisman opens up about his feelings towards the cancellation of Young Justice:
I’d love to say differently. I’d even love to say I’ve moved on, but I haven’t really. Like many of the fans, I’m still mourning the whole thing, quite a bit. Perhaps even quite a bit more than is healthy. And – because I do need to earn a living – I’m still looking for both freelance work and my next solid gig. (It’s been fourteen months without a real job, and it’s starting to get a bit nerve-wracking, to be perfectly honest.) But Rain is coming out in December, and I’m hard at work on its sequel. They’ve both been very rewarding to work on, at least emotionally. (We’ll have to wait and see if they turn out to be rewarding financially – but at least the potential upside is there.)
I’d happily do a YJ Novel, but like anything YJ related, it’s just not up to me. It’s just not a property I control AT ALL.
Young Justice fans wanting to experience more of Weisman’s work should check out Rain of the Ghosts and his previous animated series like the Spectacular Spider-Man and Gargoyles.
