The DC animated world is getting a little chaotic with Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse. The crossover film finds the latter team fighting Lex Luthor to free the world's heroes from the Phantom Zone, ending up in the Teen Titans Go! universe and asking for their help.
Tara Strong, who is a legend in the voice acting industry and has played every character from Terra in Young Justice to Miss Minutes in Loki, takes on the roles of Raven and Batgirl in Mayhem in the Multiverse. Not to mention Harley Quinn, once more proving her versatility.
In time for the film's release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with star Tara Strong to discuss Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, working on both superhero teams, her desire for a Teen Titans revival and more.
Screen Rant: One of the things I find amazing is you're one of the rare ones who gets to pull double duty as part of the Super Hero Girls and Teen Titans Go! What's that like for you with these two worlds colliding after the previous crossover?
Tara Strong: It's so fun, I think truthfully, the best moments are when the Teen Titans are on the screen. Whether they're together or they're on their own complaining that they're not in the movie more. It's so genius, it was a really brilliant and well-executed comic relief in this film.
I've been saying in every interview, so I apologize if you hear this one in the other ones. I'm going to miss other movies not having the Teen Titans interjecting, it was really funny. Certainly the moments where they're actually together were brilliant, the moment with Raven and Zatanna and Harley and Batgirl. Wow, so much fun that I get to play all these characters in in all these different worlds.
I remember when Teen Titans Go! first started, personally I was a little skeptical, having grown up with the original, but I love to see how it's come into its own over the years. What has that been like for you seeing the evolution and seeing the fan growth since it first launched?
Tara Strong: It's been so nice, because it was hard in the beginning to see all the hate, because we as performers were so happy that we were invited back. Because in actuality, it's a different show and I think people were angry because season 5 ended at such a pivotal story arc moment that they were hoping that when the Teen Titans came back, it was going to answer all of their questions and take them back on this adventure and it didn't.
So I don't even think the initial reaction was actually to that show, more the disappointment to not getting season 6, which I personally believe they could do at the same time, because they're two different shows and the audiences now all really love each other! So seeing people come around online and at cons, I sign autographs for families whose kids are dressed as Go! and the parents are dressed as classic and they love it together and they love it all together. What a great thing to be a part of this giant ball of purple love.
Which would you say you get more enjoyment out of exploring, the original Teen Titans world or the Teen Titans Go! world?
Tara Strong: It's a really tough question, because I have so much love for both existences. I want to go back, I want to finish that story or at least add to it. It feels very magical and special and important to so many people, so it would be very rewarding to get to go back and do it. If they recast, I'm going to be really pissed off if they ever do that. [Laughs] You can't get like a pop star just because of ratings, it should be the OG people. But it's all my people and we have been a family for over 20 years and we're together when we do Go!, whether it's virtual during COVID or in studio.
We all love each other so much and doing Go! is really, really fun. You can't have only serious times, you have to have fun times, so it would be impossible for me to choose, you've asked for the impossible. There's two sides of everybody, it's the exact moment with Zatanna and Raven, you have this dark side that you want to explore and make good and then you have this very fun, whimsical side, a light side.
You've been a part of the superhero genre, even outside of DC, for so long now. What is it about the superhero genre that really just continues to pull you back?
Tara Strong: I feel so lucky and blessed to really have breathed life into so many important female role model characters. Characters that really help little girls and friends of little girls, characters that help people that feel alone or different. Being able to embody these characters in any way that touches people in a positive light has been an enormous gift that I'm very grateful for, so we'll start there.
It's pretty amazing to have voiced all these characters and I love all these characters, so maybe that's what brings me back. I don't just do these voices because it's a job or it's something I've done before or it's a gig that I just phone in. Every single time I see one of those names on those scripts, I become those people, I go into those worlds, I live in those universes, and I have a great time. I think it brings me back because those, right now on the planet, are authentically my persona, they're my other me's, I have my own multiverse.
I love that, you are your own multiverse.
Tara Strong: It's kind of true. It's shocking, like, "Wow, I really got to play all those people in all these different worlds." I just feel if anyone would say, "I'd pinch myself to get to do that," I want you to know I do. I pinch myself to get to play Batgirl beside beside Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy. I could have died then, but look at all the fun stuff I've got to do, it's amazing.
With you mentioning the multiverse, it's an interesting time where the multiverse is becoming such a popular concept, both in live-action and animation. What is that like for you seeing this burgeoning world of multiverses everywhere you look?
Tara Strong: I think it's so much fun, it's an endless storyline to explore. And it works in all stories, it works across all pop culture, but how fun to explore it in superhero land. They've all been brilliant, I love the Spider-Verse, I love the latest Doctor Strange. To have the kind of brain to write a script for a multiverse is pretty phenomenal, so I feel grateful to be in any kind of world exploring that, it's a genius concept.
Check out our other Mayhem in the Multiverse interviews with star Kimberly Brooks and director Matt Peters.
Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse is now available on Blu-ray and digital platforms.