Titans Season 3 Red Hood Costume Honors Jason Todd’s DC Universe History

As Titans season 3 is creeping closer to HBO Max every day, Warner has been steadily trickling information out about what to expect from the first season for the show in its new home. The latest update included a look at Red Hood, our first glimpse of a live action Red Hood costume in history. And it’s…about what you would expect from a Red Hood costume.

Check it out…

Titans is apparently skipping one part of Jason Todd’s road from being Robin to becoming the Red Hood: his death at the hands of the Joker. While Jason (portrayed by Curran Walters) is every bit the problem child he is in the comics, and at least one horrible fate for him has been teased on the show, it doesn’t appear that a death and subsequent resurrection will be necessary for him to take on his new identity.

The surprising thing about Titans‘ Red Hood is in the revelation that the Red Hood’s costume has been so consistent across so many mediums over such a long time. Jason Todd is part of a Robin lineage that has seen more costume changes than a Broadway show, and yet since becoming Red Hood, his outfit has mostly stayed the same.

The core design elements of Jason’s Red Hood costume are almost always the same, regardless of creator, series, or medium. From Batman: The Adventures Continue, the animated continuation of Batman: The Animated Series; to Injustice 2; to the post-Flashpoint DC comics universe; and back again to the animated adaptation of Under the Red Hood, his key design elements are all there. There’s a red helmet that echoes (but doesn’t directly copy the helmet of) that worn by the guy/mobster/random down on his luck comedian who would become the Joker (who in turn would murder Jason in cold blood).

There is a leather jacket and a bunch of guns, because nothing says “badass” like a leather jacket. Ask the Avengers!

And the color scheme is almost always a brown jacket, a red helmet, and gray everything else.

In fact, there have really only been three major deviations from that main scheme. Oddly enough, the first variation was his first appearance as Red Hood. Sort of.

The Red Hood of Batman mega-arc Hush looked nothing like the costume the character settled on, which makes sense, because the Red Hood of Hush wasn’t Jason Todd, but rather was Clayface pretending to be the resurrected Jason Todd to screw with Batman because Riddler had…a tumor? I think? (It’s not a great story).

Regardless, this is less a Red Hood costume and more a “what if Robin worked for Checkmate” outfit, right down to the awkward length of his turtleneck, something that a superhero super spy agency would probably hand out during orientation.

There was the Red Hood of Grant Morrison and Phillip Tan’s Batman & Robin arc. This was an undoubtedly more superheroic design, with the garish logo and bright colors and no leather jacket. It had a purpose, though – Todd was setting himself up to be the cynical counterpart to Dick Grayson’s (at the time) Batman, and he did that by being the opposite of Batman: flamboyant, murderously violent, and kind of whiny about how wrong he always was.

Last and certainly extremely least is…whatever the hell this was. The sleeveless hoodie, cargo jorts, and metal boots look makes Jason feel like a cyborg who really wants you to listen to Joe Rogan’s podcast. Also what the hell is going on with Arsenal’s shell outerpants? Are they picking up trash in Chernobyl later? Anyway, thank goodness this isn’t what the show went with.

Instead, Titans costume designer Laura Jean Shannon played it pretty straight. Guns, jacket, red hoodie, gray body armor, and a smear of red for his logo that also subtly reminds one of the Bat-logo. It’s not complicated because it doesn’t need to be.

Titans Season 3 will arrive on HBO Max in 2021.