'The Flash' Paved the Way for DC Universe's 'Stargirl'

For fans of DC superhero television, it's a great time to be alive. The upcoming DC Universe streaming service is poised to bring Titans, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing and Stargirl to life while The CW Arrowverse shows along with Black Lightning give fan no shortage of heroes to watch.

Now, as we get closer to the debut of DC Universe, we're getting more details about Stargirl live action as well and it turns out that it was The CW's The Flash that really paved the way for Courtney Whitmore's standalone series. In a recent interview with CBR, Stargirl series producer and co-creator Geoff Johns explained that The Flash showed them that elements and characters that might seem impossible to do on a television budget were actually possible -- especially when it comes to Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E.

"Really, I think, with the budgets and the time and the creative has pushed this stuff to be closer to lore and celebrate the lore and I think that's going to be a lot of fun," Johns said. "So, making S.T.R.I.P.E. is hard, like a Gorilla Grodd, you know? Greg Berlanti and I were talking the other day and he was like, 'You know, when we started doing Flash, in the pilot we put in the gorilla cage that was bent open and we had the Grodd thing there and was like, oh, gorilla was affected by the explosion and, at the time, people were like, how are we ever going to do Gorilla Grodd? How are we going to do Gorilla Grodd? And they were like, well, we want to try. We want to try.' I think Grodd is kind of this great — he was like the first thing, and now you look at everything that's happening like, 'Yeah, we could pull off S.T.R.I.P.E.'"

As fans of the comics iteration of Stargirl are aware, S.T.R.I.P.E. (Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer) is the powered armor suit that is both invented and worn by Pat Dugan, Courtney Whitmore's stepfather. When Courtney becomes a superhero -- specifically the second Star-Spangled Kid as Dugan had once served as the first's sidekick, Stripesy -- Dugan develops S.T.R.I.P.E. to go with and protect her. S.T.R.I.P.E. is such an important part of Courtney's story that Johns explained that they couldn't do the show without him.

Also, part of the show? A reimagined Justice Society of America, something Johns also nodded at the Arrowverse as well as Smallville for paving the way for.

"Much like, you know, Arrow reimagining Green Arrow or Smallville [on Superman], I'm taking a brand new direction on Justice Society," Johns said. "It'll be, I think, more closer to the lore. I wanted to kind of do a brand new reimagining of it for Stargirl."

Originally created by Johns along with Lee Moder and inspired by Johns' late sister Courtney, Stargirl made her DC Comics debut in 1999's Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #1. The character has previously appeared in live-action on both Smallville and Legends of Tomorrow.

Stargirl will mark the sixth original series for DC Universe, joining Titans, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Harley Quinn, and Young Justice: Outsiders. The streaming service is set to launch on Batman Day, Sept. 15, 2018.

Are you excited for Stargirl? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Stargirl is expected to debut on DC Universe sometime in 2019.