TITANS Casts Teagan Croft as Raven

The first Titan has been found.

Deadline reported yesterday that the upcoming DC Comics digital service TV series Titans, based on the superhero team the Teen Titans, has cast newcomer Teagan Croft as the supernatural superheroine Raven.

Raven is described in the article as "the daughter of a demon, (who) is a powerful empath (that) must keep her emotions in check or risk unleashing her demonic side."

Croft, 13, is an Australian actress who appeared in the television series Home and Away and the movie The Osiris Child.

Written by Akiva Goldsman (Star Trek: Discovery), DC Entertainment president and chief creative officer Geoff Johns (The Flash, Arrow) and Greg Berlanti (Arrow, Legends Of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl), Titans follows a group of young soon-to-be superheroes recruited from every corner of the DC Universe.  In the action-adventure series, Dick Grayson emerges from the shadows to become the leader of a fearless band of new heroes that includes Starfire, Raven and others.

Created in 1980 by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, Raven first appeared in DC Comics Presents #26 as the half human/half demon daughter of the interdimensional demon Trigon and Gotham City-born human Angela Roth (known as Arella).  Raven was conceived as the result of Trigon's marriage to Arella.  Raven grew up in an alternate dimension called Azarath, with pacifistic inhabitants whose spiritual leader was the mystic Azar.  She was taught to "control her emotions" by Azar, in order to suppress her inherited demonic powers.  Initially, it was feared that if Raven were ever to feel any strong emotion, she could then become possessed by her father's evil demonic energy inside of her.

During this time, Raven rarely saw her mother and grew detached from her.  Upon Azar's death, Arella began the task of raising and teaching Raven.  Around this same time, she met her father face to face for the first time.  Soon after her 18th birthday, Raven learned that Trigon planned to come to her dimension and she vowed to stop him.  Raven initially approached the Justice League for help, but they refused her on the advice of Zatanna, who sensed her demonic parentage.  In desperation, she reformed the Teen Titans to fight her father.  The team consisted of Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Starfire, Cyborg, and Changeling (The former Beast Boy).  After defeating Trigon, Raven and her new friends soon came to think of one another as family.  Eventually, Trigon escaped his prison, came to Earth, and took control of Raven, destroying Azarath in the process.  The Titans were manipulated to kill Raven, thereby allowing the souls of Azarath contained inside the ring of Azar to possess her and use her as a channel to kill Trigon.  After this battle, Raven rose from the ashes, purged of Trigon's evil.

After the events of Flashpoint, the history of the DC Universe was altered, resulting in The New 52.  Raven made her New 52 debut in the first issue of the Phantom Stranger, shown as a girl in a black and white striped sweater who became distraught at a funeral over the level of overwhelming emotion that is emanating from the people there.  The Phantom Stranger took Raven to Stonehenge, the portal between Earth and the realm of Trigon. Being told by a "higher power" what must be done, the reluctant Stranger unwillingly handed her over to Trigon.  Raven made her first Teen Titans appearance in Teen Titans (vol.4) #16. sporting a new costume and ntroduced by Trigon as his "Black Bird of Terror" to his minions. Freeing herself from Trigon's control, she joined the Teen Titans and remained with them until that group's dissolution.  Raven went to San Francisco to learn more about her human relatives in San Francisco, where she was abducted by the current Robin Damian Wayne, who recruited her to be part of the new Teen Titans team he was establishing to take down his grandfather Ra's al Ghul.

This will be the first time the character will be portrayed in live action, although Raven has appeared in the animated projects Teen Titans, Teen Titans Go!, and Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo (voiced by Tara Strong). and Justice League vs. Teen Titans and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (voiced by Taissa Farmiga).

Titans is slated to debut on DC's digital service sometime in 2018.