Alan Ritchson Leaves The Door Open For A Possible Return To Titans
Contains spoilers for "Titans" Season 3, Episode 9: "Souls"
"Titans," a live-action series about the Teen Titans superhero team all grown up, is currently in the midst of its third season on HBO Max. Just three episodes into the season, the team underwent a significant changeup due to the death of one of its founding members. In the episode, former Robin, reborn Red Hood (Curran Walters), lures Hank Hall, alias Hawk (Alan Ritchson) to a remote location. There, Red Hood is able to plant a bomb in Hawk's chest that ends up detonating, killing him.
In addition to his Teen Titans membership, Hawk is historically part of a crimefighting duo called Hawk and Dove, the inclusion of which was announced prior to the debut of the first season of "Titans." In this latest incarnation, Hawk founded the duo with his younger brother Don (Elliot Knight). Following Don's death, Hank's partner Dawn (Minka Kelly) became the next version of Dove, likewise joining the Titans.
Though Hawk died three episodes into Season 3, the character officially made his last appearance on "Titans" in the season's ninth episode, entitled "Souls," during which he reappears in the afterlife to help shepherd some fellow fallen souls to a gate leading back to the world of the living at the expense of remaining in the afterlife himself.
In light of Hawk's heroic act, Ritchson reflected on his exit from the show in an interview with Entertainment Weekly following his final episode's airing.
Ritchson has big things on the horizon, but a Titans return isn't out of the question
As EW noted in the introduction to their interview, Ritchson is currently slated to play the titular role on an upcoming Amazon "Jack Reacher" series. The death of his "Titans" character, then, may at least be in part due to the fact that Ritchson very well may be too busy to continue to appear on "Titans." However, "Jack Reacher" role or not, Ritchson may not be gone from "Titans" forever.
"Is anything ever really finished on this show or any superhero show, right? " Ritchson said, in response to whether or not "Souls" was his last episode. "I spoke with the producers and writers before leaving, and was just very humbled by how gracious they were and how open-ended they left the conversation. 'Would you ever come back if we wanted to have you back?' And I said, 'Absolutely.'"
While this implies the door is open for Hawk to return to "Titans," Ritchson likewise expressed his satisfaction with his character's storyline should it indeed be over for good. "I don't know if they'll ever feel like servicing Hank and that Hawk-Dove storyline again, but I do love where we left it. I think it's really beautiful. This journey that Hawk was on mirrored my own life in such an eerie way," Ritchson said. "It really was the end of an era, and I kind of found myself on the show."