Ravager (and More) Costume Leak from DC Universe's Titans Season Two

Images from DC Universe's Titans season two have begun to leak. Of particular interest to Deathstroke fans is an image circulating that seems to depict Chelsea Zhang in what appears to be a costume fitting for her Ravager gear. Though the image is from behind and does not show her face, it was leaked on the same day as costume test images for Conor Leslie as Donna Troy and Anna Diop as Starfire.  To be honest, when Geoff Johns said that Titan's would feature a "different" version of Deathstroke, I was a little worried that he would be a "criminal mastermind" type that wore civies, but after seeing Zhang's costume, I'm breathing a bit easier. If the image below is legitimate, Zhang's Ravager design for Titans strongly resembles the character's established look from prior to the New 52. The leaked Titans image and a pre-New 52 Ravager image are posted below for comparison.

Chelsea Zhang being outfitted in her Ravager costume for
Titans season two.

Reference art for Ravager's pre-New 52 look

Also leaked were images for Conor Leslie's Donna Troy costume and Anna Diop's Starfire. Both test images for Leslie and Diop are posted below.

Donna Troy (portrayed by Conor Leslie) costume test image

Starfire (portrayed by Anna Diop) costume test image

Titans season two is set to premiere on DC Universe in late 2019.

DC Universe's Titans Gets Their Rose Wilson: Chelsea Zhang

Titans' Chelsea Zhang
Image Source: IMBd

DC Universe's Titans' season two casting has really kicked into high gear. In the past eight days, Titan's has cast Esai Morales as Slade Wilson, Chella Man as Joseph Wilson, and yesterday announced that the role of Rose Wilson will be played by Chelsea Zhang. Zhang has acting credits for Disney Channel's Andi Mack, the made for TV movie The Cheerleader Murders, and the feature films, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Relish.

According to her IMDb page, Zhang "qualified for the US figure skating Junior Nationals" at 12 years of age. "In high school, Chelsea was a varsity cheerleader, VP of the Junior Honors Society, and Dance Committee Director." She entered "college at age 16 on a presidential scholarship," graduating, "from USC with a business administration degree from the Marshall School of Business."

Congratulations to Chelsea Zhang from the Deathstroke Files. I'm sure she will do an outstanding job!

DC Universe's Titans Gets Their Jericho: Chella Man

Chella Man
Image Source: Zimbio.com

Chella Man has been cast as Jericho in DC Universe's Titans season two. Man, a recently trans male, describes himself as a "deaf, genderqueer, artist," and is a successful YouTuber, model, and transgender advocate. The part of Jericho will be Man's first major Man role, which will make excellent use of his ability to use American Sign Language as this was a vital part of Jericho's earliest appearances.

Titans' producers describe the part of Jericho as follows.

As a young boy, Max (Joseph) was a kind-hearted soul who never measured up to the expectations of his domineering military father. Bullied by his peers, he retreated even further inward...He’s a misfit who’s always longed for acceptance and love, but never found it, always suffering betrayal by those he dared to believe in most. As a result, he’s grown into a young man who now longs to inflict pain on all those who have caused him pain...

Congratulations to Chella Man. Go get it done, young man!

DC Universe's Titans Gets Their Deathstroke: Esai Morales

New Deathstroke actor, Esai Morales
Image Source: Wikipedia

Reported by numerous media outlets and later confirmed by the show's verified Twitter account, DC Universe's live-action Titans had found its Deathstroke for its second season. Hollywood veteran, Esai Morales is the latest actor selected to portray Slade Wilson, this time back on the small screen. Morales follows fan-favorite TV portrayals turned in by Ron Perlman (Cartoon Network's Teen Titans) and Manu Bennett (CW's Arrow), as well as the all too brief rendition, brought the big screen by Joe Manganiello (Justice League). 

Morales, a graduate of New York's High School for the Performing Arts, is no acting novice as he has appeared in numerous film and television productions. Morales' television series roles include NYPD Blue, Vanished, Jericho, Caprica, Los Americans, How To Get Away With Murder, Ozark, and NCIS: Los Angeles. His feature film credits include La Bamba, Freejack, In the Army Now, and Superfly. Morales also has a video game voice-acting credit for True Crime: New York City. 

Morales takes over the role that the Titans' producers describe as follows:

Slade Wilson is known for being DC’s deadliest assassin. While serving his country, Slade became an elite soldier before government testing enhanced his physiology to near superhuman levels, putting him on a path of darkness and revenge. To his family, Slade is a father and husband, but to the rest of the world, he is feared by many as the infamous Deathstroke; selling his services to the highest bidder as the ruthless assassin that never gives up and never misses.

Congratulations to Esai Morales for landing this killer role. I can't wait to see what he does with it when Titans returns for season two.

TOOLS OF THE TERMINATOR: The Ikon Suit

When the character designs for the DC Rebirth Deathstroke series by ACO were released, it was assumed by many that the new, streamlined look was simply a cosmetic choice designed to differentiate the series' look from the heavily armored, Liefeldish motif used in prior series. But, in issue #2 of Deathroke (2016), the world was introduced to the "Ikon Suit."

The Ikon Suit was designed by Deathstroke's former special ops associate, David Isherwood. Once Isherwood presented the prototype suit to him, Slade casually dismissed using it, instead choosing just to store it in a footlocker. Isherwood would go one to perfect a version of the suit, which he used to fight crime in Canada as the hero Doctor Ikon. Isherwood's completed suit would find its way to Jericho, Isherwood's former lover, after Isherwood's apparent suicide. Jericho continues to use Isherwood's own suit for his own superhero activities. Slade would later be manipulated into donning his prototype Ikon Suit complete with an artificial intelligence system programmed with his old friend, Wintergreen's, voice and personality, which Isherwood included simply to irritate Slade. Deathstroke now wears an upgraded version of his Ikon Suit.

According to the encyclopedia entry on the DC Universe streaming service, the “'Ikon' suit absorbs kinetic energy and blocks it, making it impervious to bullets or the fist of a superhuman opponent."

The Ikon Suit in action against Superman

Art by Carlo Pagulayan

The FANDOM-hosted DC Database provides even more details:

The Ikon Suit is a gravity sheath, a point defense system which creates a gravitational tidal effect: the greater the surface area, the weaker the defense shield. The suit is virtually impenetrable against anything around the size of a human fist. It is controlled by gestures — along with the EEG (Electroencephalography) leads in the mask. By overclocking the system, one can even attain flight. The suit also has a sophisticated A.I. programmed into it. The Ikon suit also has a major drawback: each suits' programming can be manipulated by any other suit with the master programming. This allows one Ikon suit user to activate or deactivate other suits at their discretion.

Another fault point of the Ikon is it's [sic] Gravity Sheathe can be disrupted and penetrated by Inertron, a heat and light absorbent material that has anti-gravity properties which easily enable it to penetrate it's [sic] point defense shield. Dr. Isherwood developed the Ikon Suit for Deathstroke. He gave the prototype a glance and tossed it into his footlocker, not taking their work seriously at first. A more advanced version of the Ikon Suit is currently worn by Slade, while Jericho proceeded to use the model that Ikon wore.

In any event, Deathstroke's Ikon Suit is one of the cooler additions to the Terminator's mythos.


UPDATE: This post was originally titled "Ikonic: Deathstroke's Ikon Suit."

Wilson Family Casting Call for Titans Season Two

It seems that Slade Wilson and his two surviving children are slated to appear in the upcoming season two of DC Universe's Titans. The show's producers have put out casting calls for the following:

The family, Wilson is coming to Titans season two
Image Source: DC Comics

• Jericho: "Male, 21-24, Mixed Latino or Mixed Asian. As a young boy, Max was a kind-hearted soul who never measured up to the expectations of his domineering military father. Bullied by his peers, he retreated even further inward." The description for the part continues that "He’s a misfit who’s always longed for acceptance and love, but never found it, always suffering betrayal by those he dared to believe in most. As a result, he’s grown into a young man who now longs to inflict pain on all those who have caused him pain..." The producers go on to state that, "Because of the context of the role, we would really like to look for actors who are deaf or hard of hearing, and are fluent in ASL."
• Slade Wilson: "Latinx, Asian or Caucasian men between the ages of 40 and 55" to play "a military man with a family but whose demanding nature tore that family apart" and is "a dedicated and patriotic soldier," but at some point was forced to retire from military service. 
• Rose Wilson: "Latino or mixed Asian actress between the ages of 18 and 21" to play “a strong, yet damaged woman looking to put her past behind her and find a new family to replace the one that her father destroyed.”

Titans season two is scheduled to begin filming in February 2019.