Young Justice is an American superhero animated television series developed by Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman for Cartoon Network. Despite its title, it is not a direct adaptation of Peter David, Todd Dezago and Todd Nauck's Young Justice comic series, but rather an adaptation of the entire DC Universe with a focus on teenage and young adult superheroes.
The series follows the lives of teenage superheroes and sidekicks who are members of a fictional covert operation group referred to simply as 'the team'. Young Justice is essentially a young counterpart to the famous adult team, the Justice League. The main setting is a fictional universe apart from the previous DCAU and other continuities (designated at one point as Earth-16) during a time period in which superheroes are a relatively recent phenomenon.
The series debuted with an hour-long special on November 26, 2010, with the airing of the first two episodes, "Independence Day" and "Fireworks". Young Justice premiered on September 9, 2011, on Teletoon, in Canada. After airing its second season, titled Young Justice: Invasion, the series was canceled alongside fellow DC Nation show Green Lantern: The Animated Series in the second quarter of 2013.
On November 7, 2016, Warner Bros. Animation announced that the series would be returning for a third season, titled Young Justice: Outsiders, which premiered on January 4, 2019, on DC Universe. On July 20, 2019, at San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced by series creators Vietti and Weisman that DC Universe had renewed the series for a fourth season. On September 12, 2020, it was announced that the fourth season will be titled Young Justice: Phantoms. "The Prize", an audio play that takes place between the events of the third and fourth seasons, was performed on DC FanDome on the same day. On September 18, 2020, it was announced Young Justice will be moving to HBO Max