In a few short weeks, DC Universe will stream the Stargirl TV series that will also air on the CW. As with the Harley Quinn animated series, this trailer suggests that DC Universe has recovered from its Swamp Thing stumble while lighting the superhero flame for a new generation. Not that the younger crowd needs incentive to enjoy comic book stories, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. The special effects in this trailer also look improved over a previous trailer while promising badassery from a budding teenage heroine, Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger). And Joel McHale is there, too, doling out a variant of his famed sarcastic shtick, and that’s never a bad thing (unless you’re a diehard Tiger King devotee who doesn’t realize that McHale has a shtick).
In this trailer, we McHale’s Starman character informing Courtney’s stepdad (Luke Wilson), who was once his superhero sidekick (the Star-Spangled Kid), that his torch must be passed. Despite Starman clearly being in peril — and we don’t know if he survives, disappears, or lives on in flashbacks or as an apparition, maybe even as a cardboard cutout — he expends the effort to reveal that, nope, stepdad cannot take the torch. It must go to Courtney, who will be Stargirl, and as this trailer more-than-reveals, she’s up for the task and seizes the cosmic energy staff. From there, she begins to assemble a new Justice Society, including Hourman (Lou Ferrigno Jr., who grew up with The Incredible Hulk at home, so it really is a new generation here) and Wildcat (Yvette Monreal), to take down the Injustice Society.
Previously, McHale told us that his first superhero role will see him fly and shoot energy with the staff, which is kind-of like Thor’s hammer because only certain folks are worthy to hold the thing. That’s cool, but whichever incarnation of Starman that he’s playing isn’t quite clear, so things are obviously tweaked for 2020:
Starman was invented, well, I guess he premiered, in 1941 for real. The same exact year that Captain America premiered, and it’s a very interesting — because I didn’t know this about comic books — that competing companies would kind of release the same character… My character is resurrected from back then, and he’s had different incarnations over the years. I have a friend who’s a serious comic book aficionado, and he’s a big fan. At some point, he had an overcoat, and he always had a powerful staff. Anyway, Stargirl is the name of the series, and I am indirectly related to this girl. She plays a high schooler, so it’s a whole new universe that they’re introducing with some old characters.
Stargirl will debut on the DC Universe streaming service on Monday, May 18, and then on Tuesday, May 19 on The CW.
