DC Super Hero Girls (TV series)

This article is about the 2019 TV series. For the web series, see DC Super Hero Girls.

DC Super Hero Girls is an American animated superhero television series created and developed by Lauren Faust and produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment for Cartoon Network. Based on the web series of the same name, the series premiered on March 8, 2019, with a one-hour special.^[1][2][3]

DC Super Hero Girls
Promotional poster featuring (from left to right) Zatanna, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Bumblebee, and Batgirl.
Genre	Action Adventure Comedy Superhero
Based on	Characters by DC Comics
Developed by	Lauren Faust
Voices of	Grey Griffin Tara Strong Nicole Sullivan Kimberly D. Brooks Myrna Velasco Kari Wahlgren
Opening theme	"Super Life" by Kay Hanley and Michelle Lewis
Composers	Michael Gatt Stephen Skratt & Asher Lenz (Super Shorts)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	78 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Lauren Faust (2019–20) Sam Register
Producers	Leanne Moreau Lisa Furlong-Jones
Editors	Torien Blackwolf Michael G. Buck
Running time	11 minutes
Production companies	DC Entertainment Warner Bros. Animation
Original release
Network	Cartoon Network
Release	March 8, 2019 (2019-03-08) – October 24, 2021 (2021-10-24)
Related
DC Super Hero Girls (2015)

The series follows the adventures of teenage versions of Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Bumblebee, Supergirl, Green Lantern, and Zatanna who are students at Metropolis High School.

Premise

Main article: List of DC Super Hero Girls characters

The show focuses on six female teenage superheroes with secret identities: Diana Prince / Wonder Woman (voiced by Grey Griffin); Barbara "Babs" Gordon / Batgirl (voiced by Tara Strong); Kara Danvers / Supergirl (voiced by Nicole Sullivan); Zee Zatara / Zatanna (voiced by Kari Wahlgren), Jessica Cruz / Green Lantern (voiced by Myrna Velasco); and Karen Beecher / Bumblebee (voiced by Kimberly Brooks). The six girls meet at Metropolis High School and form a superhero team dubbed the "Super Hero Girls".

The show tells the coming-of-age stories of the Super Hero Girls, dealing with their choices and decisions regarding their superhero identities and their secret identities.^[4] The show focuses on physical comedy, emotional storylines, and a large gallery of villains.^[5]

Cast

Main voice cast

• Grey Griffin as:
  • Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, a princess of the Amazons in Themyscira, and the leader of the Super Hero Girls.
  • Lois Lane, an editor-in-chief of the Daily Planetoid at Metropolis High School.
  • Doris Zeul / Giganta, a student at Metropolis High School.
• Tara Strong as:
  • Barbara "Babs" Gordon / Batgirl, a member of the Super Hero Girls, and Commissioner Gordon's daughter.
  • Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn, Babs's best friend.
  • Barbara Ann Minerva / Cheetah, Diana's rival.
• Nicole Sullivan as:
  • Kara Danvers / Supergirl, the muscle member of the Super Hero Girls, and Superman's cousin.
  • Bizzaro Kara / Bizzarogirl, a bizzaro version of Kara.
• Kimberly D. Brooks as:
  • Karen Beecher / Bumblebee, a shy member of the Super Hero Girls, who can shrink herself to the size of a bee.
  • Eliza Danvers, Supergirl's adoptive mother.
• Myrna Velasco as Jessica Cruz / Green Lantern, a part of the Green Lantern Corps, and a member of the Super Hero Girls.
• Kari Wahlgren as:
  • Zee Zatara / Zatanna, a member of the Super Hero Girls, who is an expert at magic.
  • Star Sapphire, a student at Metropolis High School.

Supporting voice cast

• Fred Tatasciore as:
  • Commissioner Jim Gordon, a police commissioner from Gotham City, and Babs's father.
  • Mr. Chapin, the stern principal of Metropolis High School.
• Phil LaMarr as:
  • Barry Allen / The Flash, a close friend of Babs.
  • Giovanni Zatara, a magician, and Zee's father.
• Max Mittelman as Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman, Supergirl's cousin.
• Keith Ferguson as:
  • Bruce Wayne / Batman, the protector of Gotham City.
  • Dick Grayson / Robin, Batman's bratty sidekick.
  • Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's butler.
  • Shane O'Shaughnessey, the manager of Burrito Bucket, and Babs's stern boss.
  • Jeremiah Danvers, Supergirl's adoptive father.
• Cree Summer as:
  • Selina Kyle / Catwoman, the leader of the Super Villain Girls.
  • Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons in Themyscira, and Diana's mother.
• Rina Hoshino as Tatsu Yamashiro / Katana, a friend of Diana.
• Mallory Low as Leslie Willis / Livewire, a bully of Metropolis High School.
• Will Friedle as:
  • Lex Luthor, the CEO of LexCorp, and Superman's archenemy.
  • Arthur Curry / Aquaman, an Atlantean.
• Jason Spisak as Hal Jordan / Green Lantern, a part of the Green Lantern Corps.
• Cristina Milizia as Pamela Lillian Isley / Poison Ivy, a neutral friend of Jessica.
• April Winchell as Antiope, Hippolyta's sister, and Diana's aunt.

Episodes

Main article: List of DC Super Hero Girls (TV series) episodes

The new incarnation of DC Super Hero Girls debuted at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con with the theatrical short #TheLateBatsby which screened in theaters before the film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.^[6] The online "Super Shorts" debuted on January 17, 2019, with #SuperSleeper on YouTube.^[7] The TV series debuted with the one-hour special #SweetJustice on March 8, 2019.^[8]

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
Theatrical short			July 27, 2018 (2018-07-27)
Shorts	52[9]		January 17, 2019 (2019-01-17)	March 19, 2020 (2020-03-19)
1	52		March 8, 2019 (2019-03-08)	December 27, 2020 (2020-12-27)
2	26		June 6, 2021 (2021-06-06)	October 24, 2021 (2021-10-24)
Crossovers	3		December 19, 2020 (2020-12-19)	May 28, 2022 (2022-05-28)
DC FanDome shorts	2		September 12, 2020 (2020-09-12)

Production

Lauren Faust was approached by Warner Bros. to create and develop DC Super Hero Girls into a television series, after previously working on Super Best Friends Forever.^[4] The television iteration of the web series DC Super Hero Girls was announced in May 2017. Tara Strong and Nicole Sullivan reprise their roles as Batgirl and Supergirl respectively from Super Best Friends Forever, while Grey Griffin, who previously voiced Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) from the DC Nation Shorts, reprises her role as Wonder Woman from the web series.^[10] A year later, a poster showing the first look of the main characters was released.^[1] The series is animated by the Canadian studio Jam Filled Entertainment and Hasbro's Boulder Media from Ireland.

The writers chose to model each character and their personalities after a teenager archetype, while also drawing inspiration for several characters on their incarnations from the Silver Age of Comic Books. For the more modern Jessica Cruz, the writers heavily altered her characterization due to her original backstory contrasting heavily with the series' lighthearted tone.^[11]

Several writers for this series had previously worked on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, another show created and developed by Faust. Also, her series is the second collaboration of Tara Strong and John de Lancie, who respectively voiced Twilight Sparkle and Discord on Friendship Is Magic.

Natalie Wetzig, a director on DC Super Hero Girls, referred to the second season of the show in an interview at the 2020 Annie Awards,^[12] but later clarified on the second half of season 1.^[13] Co-executive producer Amanda Rynda said the crew is "introducing lots of new villains and pushing the needle on new storylines" for season 2.^[5]

Broadcast

The show premiered on Cartoon Network UK on 6 July 2019.^[14] It began airing on CITV in September 2020. All 52 episodes of Season 1 were available to watch on Netflix, but have since been removed.

Other media

Video games

• DC Super Hero Girls Blitz — Budge Studios created a DC Super Hero Girls mobile game for Android and iOS devices which was released on August 8, 2019.^[15] It is a collection of microgames with difficulty-increasing-with-speed featuring the main heroines from the show, but some microgames needed to be bought separately each heroine to unlock those microgames.
• DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power — a Nintendo Switch game published by Nintendo on June 4, 2021.^[16][17]

Graphic novels

Title	ISBN	Release date
At Metropolis High	978-1-4012-8970-6	15 October 2019
Powerless	978-1-4012-9361-1	17 March 2020
Weird Science	978-1-4012-9846-3	14 July 2020
Midterms	978-1-4012-9852-4	1 September 2020
Ghosting	978-1-77950-765-5	7 September 2021
Exchange Students	978-1-77950-891-1	25 January 2022

Novel series

Title	ISBN	Release date
Winner Takes All!	978-1984894533	19 November 2019
Fierce Competition!	978-1984894564	19 February 2020

Reception

The series received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media described the series as fast-paced, focusing on teen heroes who use teamwork, and noted a strong messages about "girl power and the value of friendship" within the series.^[18]