Stargirl’s Geoff Johns Talks His Fresh Approach to the Series’ Characters

Like many live-action comics adaptations, DC’s Stargirl offers viewers a unique balance of comics-accurate content with fresh, updated, and sometimes entirely new takes on classic characters. As we’ve seen thus far on the DC Universe/The CW series, while there are characters that feel very much like they were lifted directly from the pages of the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA comics, there are also those that have a bit of a different approach, one that brings them to life in a different way. It’s something that showrunner Geoff Johns recently broke down, noting that each character was chosen for the series for a specific reason.

Speaking with ComicBook.com, Johns talked a bit about the characters who are close to their comics counterparts, but also likened putting together Courtney Whitmore’s Justice Society as being a bit like The Breakfast Club with superpowers, something that required a bit of a shift.

“It’s interesting. Some of the characters are very, like Courtney and Pat, very close to the characters in the book. Dragon King, Solomon Grundy, there’s a lot of characters that they’re stories are very close to the comics,” Johns said. “And then there’s a handful like Yolanda [Montez/Wildcat] who we’ve introduced differently. She’s younger than she was in the comics, as is Beth Chapel and Rick Tyler. But the idea was, I always loved movies like The Breakfast Club, and it was like, okay, what if The Breakfast Club had superpowers? So, it was initially like the JSA, like right now, they’re sitting at a circular table in the cafeteria, but one day they’ll be the Justice Society of America and to see them at the very beginning of their journey when they can make mistakes like Courtney can and they can, their path can be unsure and their ultimate destiny isn’t laid out yet.”

He also explained why characters like Yolanda, Beth and Rick were chosen — and why the concept of legacy and its connection is so important even if the show approaches the characters in a way that differs from comics.

“But every one of these characters was chosen because they have a specific story that is connected to these legacies and not by blood necessarily, but personally they reflect and they bond these… Yolanda to Ted and Beth to Dr. McNider and Rick to Rex like Courtney to Sylvester, all of these things are very emotional bonds that are formed between this new generation and the old, and that’s something that was important is that the JSA is about generations, but it’s also about respect for generations. It’s about taking that legacy and recognizing what’s good in it and trying to make it even better. And that’s part of who was chosen and why and where these legacies go. But the characters were all chosen for specific reasons.”

Stargirl airs Tuesdays at 8/7 on The CW. New episodes debut Mondays on DC Universe.