DC’s Best-Kept Animated Secret Returns With a Surprise May Drop

If you grew up on Saturday morning superhero cartoons, here is a nice little win: Static Shock is coming back to streaming, free, thanks to Tubi and a fresh Warner Bros. library deal. It has been a rocky couple of years for Warner Bros. Animation, but the silver lining is that a lot of their classics are finally escaping the vault and landing where people can actually watch them.

The news

Tubi and Warner Bros. cut a licensing deal earlier this year to roll out a bunch of classic animated series. The first wave hit in the Spring and quietly rescued a pile of Cartoon Network favorites that had been MIA. The next batch is up next, and the headliner is Static Shock, which is set to arrive May 1. That date was spotted on a Tubi listing by @JasonSt77097165 on X.

There is one odd wrinkle: a stray header out there says May 2026. That looks like a typo. The actual listing callout making the rounds pegs it for May 1, and that tracks with Tubi’s ongoing rollout.

Why this is a big deal

The show has been hard to find. Static Shock was pulled from HBO Max over a year ago and never found a new streaming home, so unless you bought episodes digitally, you were out of luck. Now it will be free to stream on Tubi (ad-supported), which should put a lot more eyes on what is, quietly, one of DC ’s best animated series.

The show, the legacy

Static Shock premiered on the Kids WB! block in 2000 and ran four full seasons. It is based on the Milestone Comics hero Static, and Milestone’s Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan were part of the development team. The series is technically an off-shoot of the DC Animated Universe, and during its run it even crossed over with the Justice League animated series (in both directions).

Unlike most of its DCAU cousins, Static Shock never jumped to Cartoon Network; it stayed on Kids WB!, which explains its early tone. Season 1 plays like a classic Saturday morning show: Virgil Hawkins is exposed to a mysterious gas, gains the power to control static electricity, and winds up battling other teens who were changed the same way. As it went on, it widened its scope and folded in more universe connections starting in Season 2.

It was also one of the few superhero cartoons at the time that did not duck real-world issues. Across its run, the show tackled bullying, drug use, gun violence, and more. Despite the quality, the series ultimately wrapped after four seasons, with a mix of waning ratings and softer merchandise sales blamed for the cancellation.

• Static Shock hits Tubi on May 1 (listing flagged by @JasonSt77097165 on X)
• Returns more than a year after being removed from HBO Max, where it has not been available since
• Originally aired on Kids WB! from 2000 to 2004 (four seasons)
• Based on Milestone’s Static; developed with Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan
• Part of the DC Animated Universe with crossovers to and from Justice League
• Stayed on Kids WB! (did not move to Cartoon Network); bigger DCAU ties kick in from Season 2
• Handled heavier topics than most cartoons in its lane, including bullying, drugs, and gun violence
• Cancelled due to waning popularity and lower merchandise sales

Bottom line

Static Shock getting a free streaming home is overdue, and if you missed it the first time (or you have been waiting for a proper rewatch), this is the easiest way to jump in. Start with Season 1 for the Saturday morning comfort food, and stick around as it levels up into full-on DCAU territory.