HBO Max’s Titans came in style to this year’s New York Comic Con, and we’re not just talking about all the flashy costumes. For the panel, which was shared with DC’s other hit HBO Max series Doom Patrol, actors Brenton Thwaites (Nightwing), Ryan Potter (Beast Boy), Joshua Orpin (Superboy), and showrunner/ executive producer Greg Walker were present to discuss all things, Titans.
If you’ve been following along with our coverage from NYCC, check out a roundtable interview with Brenton Thwaites here. It was shared during the panel that Titans season 4 is premiering on November third with two episodes, and that will be split into two parts. This means there will be a bit of a wait for the final six episodes of the season. As Thwaites told us during his round table interview, something supernatural and sinister is afoot, which will challenge the Titans in ways unlike they have seen before.
However, Walker told fans at the NYCC panel that when we pick up with the Titans again at the beginning of season 4, the team will be having fun, but that won’t last long. A mysterious call and a road trip will take this team into uncharted territory, something that Ryan Potter is also familiar with behind the scenes.
Sitting down with Ryan Potter at NYCC 2022
I was able to sit down with Ryan Potter, who has played Gar, aka Beast Boy, since the beginning of the series. For those who may be unfamiliar, Beast Boy is a shapeshifter, who gains the abilities of the animals he turns into, such as strength and agility. While in the comics Gar is entirely green, in the show Ryan Potter sports striking green hair most of the time.
During the round table interview, Ryan Potter shared with us some of the most exciting things to expect from Titans this season, especially for his character. Potter talked about how he influenced a major story arc for Gar and said that we’ll finally get more information about his background. He also shares his excitement about finally getting a suit which is close to his comic book counterpart! For all this and more, check out the full round table interview with Ryan Potter below!
the wait is over: feast your eyes on beast boy’s supersuit #DCTitans #DCatNYCC pic.twitter.com/QEVV1o7fVN
— DC Titans (@DCTitans) October 9, 2022
[Note: Interview transcript has been edited for extra/filler words and clarity while retaining context.]
The full roundtable interview of Ryan Potter
Interviewer: What are you excited about for the fans to see coming out in season 4.
Ryan Potter: Season 4, there was an episode I was able to craft with Geoff Johns this season, which I’m really excited. I kind of created the arc and the outline with him. And then he fleshed out the pages. And there were so few notes I had to give because he just stuck to that initial conversation that we had. And he didn’t try to take it in his own direction, like sometimes creatives do. He really honored the ideas and the basis of the story that I was trying to tell. And that is going to be a nice kind of standalone piece for Garfield, for Beast Boy. We get a better understanding of why he is the way he is, who he really is. And getting some backstory that actually informs his current positioning. And how he might be able to help the team in the kind of dire situation this season puts us in – which is on a slightly larger scale than previous seasons.
Interviewer: I have a question in terms of what the character went through in that season and the experiments that they did on him, tap into his violent side and all that? It all comes through at the end, but how does that evolve?
Ryan Potter: I’m glad you asked that because I don’t know if fans will catch it. But there is a moment later in the season, where somebody from Gar’s past shows up. And in that interaction, I wanted to show that he was not fully healed from that trauma that this individual caused him, by repeating a physical action that became a tick of his post that trauma. And I was very deliberate in keeping that tick absent throughout the season. I actually didn’t know that this person would be coming back until later.
So when they did, it was perfect, because then I was able to really highlight that tick and be like no that trauma is still there. He’s grown as an individual, and that resentment is no longer there. But the, you know, the physical implications of what happened to him still are there. So that for me as an actor, that was one of the first times I was like – oh, man, I made a physical choice that like has multi-season value and payoff! So I yeah… I don’t have many of those moments. That was the first time I was like…
Interviewer: Can you talk anything about Gar finally getting his longtime coming suit? Everybody’s so excited for it.
Ryan Potter: I mean, my counter-argument – I’ve been waiting for a suit as well. But my counterargument is he’s never really in a suit to begin with. Because we always almost want to see him as an animal, almost all the time. Or whatever celled organism that he can become, right? Because he can become anything at this point.
The suit is phenomenal. I’ll say this, the suit is phenomenal. LJ and the Super Suits team, they did a phenomenal job. Every member of the team was responsible for a different portion and piece of the suit. LJ [Laura Jean Shannon] has been doing super suits for 15 years now, I believe. I don’t want to misspeak. But every little trick that they’ve learned from every project from Titans, from The Boys, from Iron Man from like, everything she’s touched. I mean, Elf, right? But there’s a little bit of the knowledge, the prestige, the ability of that team goes into this suit.
And I think it looks phenomenal. It functioned amazing. I wanted a suit that was functional for my fight scenes and for the physicality and the action. And they made sure that I was able to move in it, it was a little restricting. But where we padded the suit allowed me to actually be more physical, and a bit more violent on my frame than I normally would be able to. Where we’re usually hiding pads in a jacket or trying to hide a pad in like a jean or short. You know, this suit was designed with action in mind. And I mean, aesthetically it’s beautiful. So yeah.
Interviewer: Did you get to like suggest anything? Any input?
Ryan Potter: Yeah, my favorite conversation I had about the suit. I was nitpicking here and there because, LJ is a perfectionist, I’m a perfectionist. And you’re like, oh, that waistline seems a half inch too high. And I literally – the conversations would be down to half inches. But it informed a silhouette and a look that we were going for kind of that Silver slash Golden age of superhero suits, meets modern textures and modern lines.
So the suit is an homage to what we’ve seen in [Marv] Wolfman and [George] Perez, meeting some of the newer 52 colors. But the conversation that I had with her that I’ve been holding off is she asked me, red and white, or purple and black. And I went – you can’t ask me that. You can’t. As a Teen Titans fan, I was like, I want that purple and black suit. But I went no, our show is honoring the Wolfman and Perez era, you know. And I wanted to make sure that totally everything we’ve done so far, was honored.
And we didn’t just suddenly take a hard right turn into Teen Titans world, you know, I’m always trying to suggest some Teen Titans storylines and sneak some stuff in there. But yeah, I mean, I think, the end of the day, the red-black-white suit is the right choice. There’s a bit of that T kind of shape in there. We kept the green paw that’s kind of embellished in there. And there’s a fine detail on the suit, where the Robin suit that material, the fabric, the edging was tiny Rs, essentially. In mine, are these tiny little paw prints that create this really interesting texture. That’s a detail not everyone’s going to be able to really notice unless they see the suit in person like maybe at New York Comic Con, or on-screen, or in a close-up. But it’s there. And yeah, we wanted the suit to be some have some serious payoff because people have been asking for a while.
Interviewer: Are there any particular storylines or Gar moments that you’re pushing for that you’d like to see in future episodes?
Ryan Potter: Yes, in Teen Titans Gar becomes a tiny, tiny, tiny thing. And that might make its way into the show at some point. From the comics, there is a deep cut from the comics that I think true comic book fans are really going to appreciate. It’s something that Geoff Johns and I dove into. He brought the knowledge. He kind of spearheaded the knowledge of the deep cut. I can’t get into it but it involves the animal kingdom and involves Beast Boy, and it involves people like Beast Boy. And that is all I can say. But I’m yeah, I’m very excited.
Interviewer: Can you share anything that was like particularly challenging as an actor for you to tackle this season? And also are you planning to stage dive at the panel?
Ryan Potter: Yeah, I know I said that escalated really quickly escalated so quick.
Interviewer: Yeah, you and Brenton.
Ryan Potter: Oh, did Brenton say that too?
Interviewer: Didn’t he reply to you and say he’s going to twerk then?
Ryan Potter: Did he? Oh God, if Brenton twerks then I will… We’ll see. We’ll see. We’ll see what that space is like. And I’ll see how helpful the front row is because if I’m diving onto five-year-olds. I don’t think that’s your-
Interviewer: I got you I got you, give me the look.
Ryan Potter: What do you bench?
Interviewer: It doesn’t matter. I will catch you.
Where and How to Watch Titans season 4
Between the carefully crafted storyline with both creatives and Potter working together on it, and a more comic-accurate suit for one of the coolest characters on Team Titans, I’m excited to see where the upcoming season goes. You can check out season 4 of Titans when it returns to HBO Max on November 3, 2022 with a two-episode premiere. Weekly episodes drop on the streaming service after that with part two of this season expected sometime in 2023.
What are you excited to see in Titans season 4? Let us know on social media at @mycosmiccircus or our Discord. If you haven’t already, check out my round table interview with Brenton Thwaites, and look out for further Titans coverage and interviews from NYCC.
NYCC Interview: Brenton Thwaites on Titans Season 4
