The debut trailer arrived this morning for Titans, offering a first look at the flagship live-action series from the DC Universe streaming service, and seeding clues to some of the bigger mysteries.

We already knew from the previously released synopsis that Dick Grayson and Rachel Roth, aka Raven, are brought together by a conspiracy that threatens to bring "hell on Earth," but this footage fills in some of the gaps, suggesting that isn't hyperbole. It almost certainly involves demonic possession, and quite possibly Rachel's interdimensional-demon father from DC comics, Trigon.

We break down the most significant moments from this first trailer, and try to piece together the clues to the Season 1 plot and this hellish conspiracy.

'You're the Boy from the Circus'

The trailer opens on a vision or dream experienced by Rachel Roth (Teagan Croft), aka Raven, of what in DC comic book lore is Haly's Circus, home to the Flying Graysons acrobat troupe. During a stop in Gotham City, the circus' owner was confronted by gangsters who attempted to extort protection money. When he refused, they sabotaged the trapeze, so that during the next performance, the ropes snapped, sending Dick Grayson's parents falling to their deaths, and leaving the young boy an orphan.

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Of course, Dick was named the ward of the wealthy Bruce Wayne, trained as a crime-fighter and then adopted the costumed identity of Robin. The Dynamic Duo then made swift work of the criminals responsible for the deaths of the Graysons.

That's Detective Grayson

Since his introduction in 1940, Dick Grayson has been an acrobat, a student, a police officer, a bartender, a museum curator and even a super-spy. Although in the comics Dick became a police officer in crime-ridden Bludhaven, the hero's longtime stomping grounds, Titans appears to make him a detective in Gotham (the location isn't specified in the trailer, but the later comment by the criminal in the alley suggests just that).

'Please, Can You Help Me?

The premise of the series appears to draw heavily from DC’s The New Teen Titans, launched in 1980 by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, in which the half-demon/half-human Raven manipulates a group of young heroes to battle the threat posed by her father, the interdimensional demon Trigon. However, the Raven in the live-action series is clearly based on her more recent depictions, including the one more familiar to audiences from the Teen Titans animated series.

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The first synopsis for Titans characterizes Rachel as "a special young girl possessed by a strange darkness," which should be taken literally, judging from the trailer. While in the comics Raven was raised in another dimension, and trained to suppress her demonic side, this footage implies she may be the possessed pawn of a group that wishes to bring "hell on Earth" (presumably Trigon).

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What Was That About Batman?

The headline-grabbing moment from the trailer is, of course, when a costumed Robin brutally takes down a group of Gotham City thugs and proclaims, "Fuck Batman." It's a jarring moment that will undoubtedly ignite debate as to whether the former Boy Wonder actually killed those criminals, the sentiment -- while coarse -- isn't totally out of line with Dick's tenure with the New Teen Titans.

The comic began with a post-college Dick Grayson straining to step out from Batman's shadow, and spent the first four years of The New Teen Titans grappling with what it means to be Robin. That culminated with him retiring the costume in Issue 39, only to later adopt the Nightwing identity.

Introducing ... Beast Boy

Although Titans released multiple shots of Thwaites as Robin, we'd primarily only glimpsed Ryan Potter's Beast Boy in leaked set photos and posters seen in the wild. This is the first we've seen of the shape-shifting Garfield Logan in full makeup, and we can presume from his movements in this sequence that he's just about to transform into an animal. (It's only the first footage, so most likely we'll see some CGI animals in later promos.)

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Much of the focus has been on Dick Grayson and Rachel Roth, but it seem likely that Beast Boy will receive time in the spotlight, particularly later in the season with the introduction of the Doom Patrol, the offbeat superhero team with direct connections to the character.

Is Starfire An Alien On Titans?

Starfire remains the most difficult sell for fans, as Titans appears to be taking a more down-to-Earth approach to the formidable alien princess. Played by Anna Diop, it's quite possible the character will be far more grounded than in the source material, which would be in keeping with a Rachel Roth who's "simply" demonically possessed, rather than a part-demon priestess raised in another dimension.

That Other Dynamic Duo

The blur of white "feathers" is, of course, the vigilante Dove, played by Minka Kelly; you can see Alan Ritchson's Hawk in the background, and, briefly, in the next shot. Created by Steve Dikto and Steve Skeates, the superhero duo was introduced in 1968 as brothers -- the militant Hawk and pacifistic Dove -- who reflected conflicting political philosophies of the era. After the original Dove was killed during the events of DC's 1985 crossover Crisis On Infinite Earths, he was succeeded by the current female version.

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Kelly recently stressed that Hawk and Dove on Titans are vigilantes, not superheroes, which is reflected in some of the bloody footage. “So you get to see the backstory of how we became vigilantes," she said, "what happened in our lives that broke us, that made us want to fight, to protect the good of the people.”

Wait, Is This Trigon?

The big question of the Titans trailer comes at about the 1;25 mark, when this other-wise unassuming man casually hurls a woman (possibly Kelly's Dove) through the air and into a rooftop pigeon coop.

Rumors circulated as far back as December that Titans was casting for the role of Raven's demonic father Trigon. While this man looks nothing like the character we know from the comics -- no crimson skin or horns, and he appears to have only two eyes -- his otherworldly strength suggests there's far more to him than pigeon fancying. Piecing together some of the clues from this trailer, we might surmise he's Trigon, or at least his human vessel.


Titans stars Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson, Anna Diop as Starfire, Teagan Croft as Raven, Ryan Potter as Beast Boy, Alan Ritchson as Hawk, Minka Kelly as Dove and Lindsey Gort as Amy Rohrbach.