The second season of DC’s Stargirl is picking up steam with the first two episodes of The CW series establishing the arrivals of two new adversaries for the young Justice Society of America to take on. While the return of Cindy Burman (Meg Delacy) and the arrival of Eclipso hasn’t yet been revealed to the JSA, last week’s episode “Summer School: Chapter Two” saw Richard Swift/The Shade’s (Jonathan Cake) presence become known and that means this week, it’ll be high alert for the JSA. It also presents an opportunity for Mike Dugan (Trae Romano) to try to take his place with the heroes.
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Even after being a pivotal part of the defeat of the Injustice Society at the end of Season 1, Mike remains a character who not only doesn’t quite have a seat at the table but whose story hasn’t really been explored much, at least until this week’s “Summer School: Chapter Three”. Recently, ComicBook.com sat down with Romano to chat about the Mike-centric episode and he revealed that not only is it a game-changer for Mike, but he had a great time making it.
“When Geoff [Johns] first sent me the script, I had a great time with it because… I had the script for a long time, actually. When we started filming episode two, I already had the scripts for episode three. So, I had so much time to look over the material, and I think it was about time to finally have a Mike-centric episode, to really see what he’s like outside of the house, what he has to deal with, bullies, paper route, or whatever it may be,” Romano said. “And the arc for this episode was so well done. He goes from this ambitious kid still wanting to be in the JSA to being this weathered, traumatized person that realizes that he might not be capable of the only thing that he’s ever really wanted.”
It sounds like quite an arc for the character and Romano had high praise for Lea Thompson, who directed the episode.
“So literally, so much is accomplished in this one episode, and it makes you feel for Mike so, so much in a 45-minute airtime, which I think they did terrifically well,” he said. “And honestly, all props to Lea Thompson, because the minute I got the script, she reached out to me and she was like, ‘Hey, if you want to talk about the script, if you want to read it with me a little while, I just want to make this episode as good as it possibly can be because of how important it is to Mike’s character.’ So, we were both on the same page from early on, and we were reading through the script, again, when were still even filming episode two.”
Romano went on to explain that the episode is one that paints his character in a very different light and will make people genuinely feel for Mike.
“I think everyone’s going to really enjoy it because it paints Mike in a different light,” Romano said. “It’s not that he’s just the annoying step-brother. Mike’s actually a real character, and we feel for him, because you can tell that, over the course of the whole show, that he’s really been covering up a lot of his feelings. And so, yeah, I had a great time with this episode. I think everyone’s going to really enjoy it.”
DC’s Stargirl airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW. “Summer School: Chapter Three” airs August 24th.
