'Titans' Season 3 debuts Red Hood and confirms August premiere in first teaser trailer

Goodbye, Jason Todd. Hello, Red Hood. HBO Max has released the first teaser trailer for Season 3 of Titans, which officially premieres on the WarnerMedia streaming service Thursday, Aug. 12. The series (developed by the trio of Greg Berlanti, Akiva Goldsman, and Geoff Johns) was a DC Universe exclusive for its first two seasons before the comic book-centric platform went bust last year and rebranded itself as "DC Universe Infinite."

Nevertheless, we're still getting a third helping of the dark and brooding take on the Teen Titans, whose new season includes the debut of Red Hood (Curran Walters); a new look for Starfire (Ana Diop); Starfire's sister, Blackfire (Damaris Lewis); Barbara Gordon (Savannah Welch), who is now commissioner of the Gotham PD; and fear toxin maestro Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow (Vincent Kartheiser). Beast Boy (Ryan Potter), Hawk (Alan Ritchson), Dove (Minka Kelly), Superboy (Joshua Orpin), Krypto, and Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen) return from previous seasons.

Watch the trailer:

Is there a hint of some Joker action as well? It looks like the show will stick to the comics and have the Clown Prince of Crime beat Jason Todd to within an inch of his life with a crowbar.

Dick Grayson's Nightwing (Brenton Thwaites) is forced to team up with Crane after a dangerous criminal breaks free in Gotham. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Greg Walker compared the doctor to Hannibal Lecter. 

"This is a learned psychologist who understands the human mind but also has a deep, dark vendetta to destroy people in a way that you need to be able to manifest as an actor — to find the broken and the mania. And [Kartheiser] handles both very well," he said.

"In our story with Dick returning to Gotham — and Gotham is a huge character this season — it's about sons and daughters, [and] stepping into the shadow of your parents," Walker continued. "Barbara is going to be conflicted by Dick's arrival. Barbara's feeling is that the legacy of Bruce and Jim has been this idea that she thinks is antiquated and inefficient: the God syndrome, meaning that superheroes create the situation where they're the heroes."

Season 3 of Titans arrives on HBO Max Thursday, Aug. 12. The first two seasons are currently available to stream on the WarnerMedia platform.