Young Hercules

In an age of light and darkness, Zeus, king of the gods, rules the universe. He had a son: young Hercules! Before the man became legend, before the legend became myth came the greatest story of all! Young Hercules

A spin-off/prequel series of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys that ran back for one season in 1998-1999, airing 50 episodes. One of the executive producers was Sam Raimi.

It starred Ryan Gosling as the titular Hercules.

The entire series is available on Hulu.

Tropes used in Young Hercules include:

• Aborted Arc: Contrary to his claims, Bacchus is never seen seeking his revenge against Hercules and no such event was ever referenced in the parent series.
• Academy of Adventure: Cheiron's Academy
• Adorkable: Hephaestus. Hercules, Jason and Iolaus all have thier own moments
• An Aesop: Considering the series aired on FOX Kids, this was a given.
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Zeus forbid the gods from killing each other. Extending the rule to include Hercules is the only thing keeping Ares and the like from killing him.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: One episode features a student that refuses to believe the gods exist.
• Ascended Extra: Strife, who only appeared in six episodes of the parent series, appeared far more often.
  • Jason also counts as well. When the pilot movie was produced, Jason had only appeared in about four episodes up to that point. Here he's a main character.
• Badass Normal: Iolaus, Jason and Lilith.
• Big Bad: Ares.
• Big Brother Bully
• Brother-Sister Incest: Averted. Ares and Discord are siblings and while the parent series shows them in a sexual relationship, that is obviously downplayed here.
• Butt Monkey: Strife.
• California Doubling: Filmed in New Zealand, set in ancient Greece.
• Classical Mythology: Superficially.
• Clear Their Name: "Ares On Trial." Ares is accused of breaking Zeus' rule about no god trying to kill Hercules. Who does he get to defend him? Hercules.
• Continuity Nod: The pilot movie ends with Hercules and Iolaus musing over the possibility of a three-headed monster. In Hercules And The Amazon Women (their first appearance airdate-wise), the duo fight a hydra, which grows three heads.
• Evil Counterpart: Lucius to Hercules.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Hercules' quest to meet his father face-to-face, especially as HTLJ showed their first offical meeting. Subverted, though, in the last episode in which a character Hercules encountered turned out to be Zeus in disguise. So, Hercules did meet his father, he just didn't know it at the time.
  • To say nothing of the gods' plots to kill Hercules.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Hercules, Iolaus and (to a lesser extent) Jason.
• Five-Man Band
  • The Hero: Hercules.
  • The Lancer: Iolaus.
  • The Smart Guy: Jason, although he was no slouch at fighting.
  • The Big Guy: Naturally, Hercules.
  • The Chick: Lilith.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Hercules is half-god, half-mortal.
  • Also Cheiron who is a centaur.
• Hot Amazon
• It Will Never Catch On: Kora starts serving a new foreign drink that she describes as heated beans strained through water (in other words, coffee) with milk added. Hercules is rather put off by that unflattering description and is further unsettled when he notices that Kora is incredibly jittery from drinking so much of it.
• Jerkass Gods: Almost every god that Hercules regularly interacts with fit this trope. Hephaestus is the only subversion. He has his bad moments, but he is genuinely one of Hercules' friends.
• Just Think of the Potential: Stated by Hephaestus himself to be the reason he’s such an incredible inventor. He has the ability to see what anything can become, their potential
• King of the Gods: Zeus.
• Mr. Fanservice: And how. Just look at the three main characters.
• Mythology Gag: The pilot movie ends with Hercules and Iolaus discussing the possibility of fighting a three-headed monster. They do years later in Hercules And The Amazon Women, the first TV-Movie.
• Nice Guy: Hephaestus. He’s the only god that has no desire whatsoever to harm Hercules or his friends. Hercules is this as well.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Regularly, the heroes would have to get themselves out of a situation that they got themselves into in the first place. To be fair, they are younger and less experienced.
• Opening Narration: See the page quote.
• The Other Darrin: Ian Boen played Young Herc in the pilot movie and on HTLJ. As Boen opted not to continue, Ryan Gosling took over for the series.
  • There was also Sharon Tyrell, who played Herc's mother, Alcmene, in the series. In the pilot movie, she was played by Rachel Blakely. In HTLJ, Alcmene as a young woman was played by Kim Michalis.
• Pygmalion Plot: "My Fair Lilth," in which the guys try to pass Lilth off as a princess to help get Jason out of an arranged marriage.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Cheiron
• Sadly Mythtaken: If you know what franchise this series is a part of, you already know the answer.
• Shirtless Scene: Hercules got one shirtless scene. And he wasn't the only one. Iolaus (played by the lovely and talented Dean O'Gorman) had at least three, and Jason (played by the equally-if-not-moreso lovely and talented Chris Conrad)...well, it's easier to find episodes where he isn't shirtless, really.
• Sibling Rivalry: Not only between Hercules and Ares but many of Hercules' half siblings as well. Everyone just wants to impress Dad.
  • With the notable exemption of Hephaestus
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Ares and Hephaestus
• The Smurfette Principle: In the pilot movie, Yvenna. In the series proper, Lilth.
• Spinoff Babies
• Terrible Trio: Ares, Strife and Discord.
• Thieves' Guild: Iolaus was part of a bandit group.
• Too Good to Last: Second only to Power Rangers in terms of Fox Kids shows ratings wise, it's not quite sure why this gem was canceled. (Not that Fox always HAD a reason.) There was a rumor that Hercules actor Ryan Gosling had commited suicide, but that obviously turned out to be false.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Guess who...
• War God: Ares.
• Warrior Prince: Jason.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Hercules' main goal in this series is to meet his father and be acknowledged. It's kind of subverted, though, as viewers are well-aware that Zeus knows who Hercules is and even considers him his favorite child.
  • Hephaestus initially was this for Hera, but he grew out of it.
• You Look Familiar: Michael "Iolaus" Hurst appears as a peddler in the pilot movie.