In 2019, six years after its initial two-season run on Cartoon Network ended, Young Justice returned for Season 3 on DC Universe, and Season 4 followed a couple years later exclusively to HBO Max subscribers. The latest season concluded on June 9, and since then fans have been waiting for news on if Season 5 will happen. Well, an update on Young Justice’s future has been provided, in that reportedly the animated DC TV show doesn’t have a future.
According to TV Line, HBO Max only ordered one season of Young Justice following its run on DC Universe (which is now the comics-exclusive platform DC Universe Infinite), and that hasn’t changed. As such, the outlet has heard that there are “no current plans” for Young Justice Season 5. This marks another blow for the DC media space, following just a few weeks after the Batgirl movie was scrapped by Warner Bros. Discovery despite having already filmed and being deep into post-production.
Assuming that Young Justice Season 4 was indeed meant to be the expectation-defying final season on HBO Max, the Season 4 finale certainly made it seem like Season 5 was a possibility. While the finale, “Death and Rebirth,” wrapped by the Zod story arc and finally saw Conner, a.k.a. Superboy, and M’gann, a.k.a. Miss Martian, marrying, there were a number of dangling plot threads left behind. These included Dru-Zod and other Kryptonians freed from The Phantom Zone being imprisoned by The Light, Grayven giving the planet Durla to Ma’alefa’ak as a new home for the White Martians, Ursa preparing to give birth to Lor-Zod (not to be confused with the adult Lor-Zod from the future who died) on Daxam, and Mary Marvel (now going by Black Mary) and Kara Zor-El (better known as Supergirl) becoming Darkseid’s newest Furies.
So there was plenty of material that Young Justice Season 5 could have explored, but per this update, that won’t be happening. Granted, since this isn’t an official statement, there’s always the slim chance that HBO Max does intended to bring Young Justice back and simply hasn’t announced it yet. But assuming that Young Justice Season 4 is the final batch of episodes, this is the second time the show has concluded, and when Young Justice was cancelled on Cartoon Network back in 2013, it also left viewers with some unresolved loose ends.
If there’s a silver lining here for Young Justice fans, just because the show reportedly isn’t coming back doesn’t mean this continuity can’t be explored more. There have been a few tie-in comic book series over the years, including the current one, Young Justice: Targets, which is set two months after the end of Season 4. So if there’s no chance of Young Justice being resurrected again as an animated series, maybe one last comic book series could be published that delves into what would have happened in Season 5 and finish this DC saga once and for all.
Should there be any surprising Young Justice developments, CinemaBlend will pass those along. If you’re wondering what small screen entertainment is left for the rest of this year, our 2022 TV schedule is available to peruse.
