DC’s Stargirl has been renewed for a second season, reports Deadline. But there’s a catch: it’s jumping homes from Warner Bros. DC Universe streaming service to The CW, where it’ll join the rest of that network’s DC adaptations.
The series is about high school student Courtney Whitmore (played by Brec Bassinger), who picks up the mantle of Stargirl after discovering that her stepfather, Sylvester Pemberton (Joel McHale) was once the sidekick to a superhero, Starman. When she discovers his powerful cosmic staff, she becomes a superhero herself, and brings together her own team of heroes.
Stargirl was initially part of a live-action slate of shows for Warner Bros.’ DC Universe, which launched in 2017, along with Titans, Swamp Thing, and Doom Patrol.
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While Titans got off to a solid start on the platform (it was renewed for a third season back in November), the rest have had some more trouble. Swamp Thing was abruptly canceled in June 2019, and Doom Patrol was renewed for a second season—one that it would share with Warner Bros. newest streaming service, HBO Max. (The latest season began streaming on June 25th.) Stargirl has had its own share of issues: It was initially slated to be released in January 2020, but that was pushed back to earlier this summer, where it was released both on DC Universe and The CW.
With its renewal, Deadline notes that the show’s second season won’t be offered on DC Universe at all—it’ll premiere only on The CW, and on the network’s digital platforms the day after. The move certainly brings into question the viability of DC Universe, given that its live-action originals are slipping off the platform, and the competition from HBO Max. Deadline notes that DC Universe is still around, but that it seems to be shifting focus, “focusing on its core business of DC comic book and news content for fans.”
This isn’t the first time that The CW has captured such a show—it did something similar with Supergirl, which it picked up from CBS, and subsequently tied it in with its Arrowverse franchise. Stargirl is already connected to that overarching superhero network: the show’s characters made an appearance in last year’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event.
On the CW, Stargirl joins a robust group of DC shows: while the network’s flagship series Arrow has since ended, it’ll be accompanied by The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman, and Superman & Lois.
The show’s really cute, and I like the staff almost as much as I like Doctor Strange’s cape. The bad new is that DC Universe’s budget for the show was much, much bigger than the CW’s ARROWVERSE shows so the look of the show won’t be as good going forward.
“who picks up the mantle of Stargirl after discovering that her stepfather, Sylvester Pemberton (Joel McHale) was once the sidekick to a superhero, Starman.”
Misleading sentence. Reads as if Pemberton/Starman was the sidekick and doesn’t identify Stripesy as the stepdad.
DCU seems doomed as a streaming service, or at least will be subsumed as a sub-brand into HBO’s. My only concern is what happens to Doom Patrol, a show highly unlikely to end up on the CW.
Isn’t the 2nd season of Doom Patrol on HBOMax?
@3 tree: haven’t seen it yet, so not sure. It’s co-produced with HBO, so that would make sense. HBO’s various tangled streaming offerings, however, do not make sense. Maybe some consolidation would work well for Doom P in particular and other more adult-oriented DCU shows in general. Think the coming Green Lantern show is slated for HBO.
Dear Me, I’m not surprised but not very amused by this latest development – does DC have any luck when it comes to setting up their own corner of the Studio lot? (Hopefully the various series will keep going, despite the various convolutions surrounding their airing).
Excuse my confusion. What does it mean that “it’s jumping homes from Warner Bros. DC Universe streaming service to The CW, where it’ll join the rest of that network’s DC adaptations?”
I have been watching the first season on the CW, not on streaming…
@6: I’ve been watching it on CW too. I guess the big change is that for this season, the show was available on DC universe first, and was being rebroadcast on CW later; now it will be on CW first, and eventually available on streaming. Moving from streaming is bad for DC Universe; if CW has a lower budget than DC universe, the move may also be bad for the show.
@7 That would explain why the podcast reviewing the new episode dropped yesterday (I have not listened to it yet) but the new episode doesn’t air until tonight…
The CW’s record on superhero shows is kinda hit-and-miss:
* Arrow started out good, went downhill fast, and managed to recover shortly before it ended.
* The Flash has always been great, even on its weaker seasons.
* Supergirl started off with a great first season, but has gone downhill ever since it was taken over by the CW, when the writers decided that making divisive political statements was more important than making good, well-written entertainment.
* Legends of Tomorrow started out pretty bad, but has just gotten better and better as time goes by.
* Batwoman started out in the same cesspit of toxic identity politics and poor writing as Supergirl was wallowing in at the time of its premiere, and just got worse from there, to the point where its lead actress ended up leaving for undisclosed reasons after only one season.
And now they’re going to be taking over Stargirl, which up until now they’ve been re-running but not producing. So far, Stargirl has been a consistently excellent show, even better than the first season of Supergirl, which the CW began to ruin ever since they got their hands on it. But the same people haven’t ruined The Flash or Legends, so… I really don’t know what to think here, other than to be reeeeeeeally nervous…
@9 The same production team lead by Greg Berlanti that is in charge of the CW ARROWVERSE was in charge of STARGIRL DCU production and Geoff Johns remains the show runner so the only real change for STARGIRL will be less money for the production values.
Oh, and praise Beebo, Viking God of War and Cuddles, our one true plushy god.
@9. mason: three of your statements seem to contradict themselves, or are at least dissonant:
1. How can Flash be consistently great and weaker at the same time?
2. “when the writers decided that making divisive political statements was more important than making good, well-written entertainment.”
Don’t think it was an either/or proposition. They likely thought they could do both: good writing and political commentary, not the perceived divisive part.
3. “Batwoman started out in the same cesspit of toxic identity politics and poor writing… to the point where its lead actress ended up leaving for undisclosed reasons after only one season.”
Connecting it that way is pure assumption. No one knows publicly why Rose left. It was likely work demands (and some think set safety, as she got severely injured). It’s highly unlikely it was “identity politics” that caused her to leave.
Methinks you are seeing things thru an ideological lens.
@11
1. Because it’s just that good, that even its bad seasons are still really good.
2. I’m sure they thought that. They failed hard at it though, and… well, don’t take my word for it. Look at the audience numbers over time.
3. Again, look at the audience numbers. While I’m sure the injury didn’t help matters… wouldn’t you want off a show that lost 70% of its audience — which didn’t start out exceptionally large to begin with — over the course of the first season? And that happened because the incessant harping on identity politics alienated far more people than it drew in.
@mason: “And that happened because the incessant harping on identity politics alienated far more people than it drew in.”
Nah. That’s just you interpreting from a biased perspective. (Not that I believe your blanket statement about viewing numbers anyway. (citation needed)) A 70% drop in viewership doesn’t get you a second season.
Even if significant drop in numbers, there could be many reasons why, aside from your presumed ideological ones. I would presume that anyone going in to an Arrowverse show starring a lesbian character would know what to expect.
In my case, some boredom set in. I don’t care much anymore for season long storylines that sag in the middle and often seem to spin their wheels and use delay tactics. Flash mostly solved those issues by doing shorter arcs, but your assessment of “even the bad ones are really good” is still contradictory.