The superhero genre may be one of the hottest and most profitable in the entire entertainment industry, with TV shows and movies popping up left and right, but landing one of the coveted costumed roles is still tough for any actor or actress. Just about everyone wants to get those parts and the competition is fierce. So actually getting cast as a superhero can feel like a massive deal to any actor, no matter how well-known or established they may be. Just ask veteran TV actor Joel McHale, who is set to play DC’s Starman in the upcoming Stargirl TV series.
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After years of playing Community lead Jeff Winger over on NBC, and popping up on shows like The X-Files and Santa Clarita Diet, McHale is getting his chance to don a superhero costume, something he’s always wanted to do in his career. During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, McHale opened up about his work on Stargirl, which he calls “a dream come true.”
“Believe me, I was just honored to be asked. It was a dream come true from Geoff Johns,” McHale said. “I was thrilled because I’ve always wanted to play a superhero. Starman, basically he came out at the same time that Captain America did in the ’40s and I guess he just didn’t have as good of a PR team. There’s been a lot of different versions of him and after reading a bunch of stuff about him, it’s really fun to play. And then I read the scripts and they were great. I knew [Brec Bassinger] playing Stargirl, that actor is terrific and she’s a star.”
While McHale’s Starman is a vital part of the mythology of Stargirl, he only appears in flashbacks alongside his sidekick Pat Dugan, played by Luke Wilson.
“All my scenes are with Luke Wilson,” McHale continued. “He’s such a nice man and he’s such a good actor that I always still find myself in situations where I say, ‘You get to be a superhero. You get to work with Luke Wilson.’ So I hope to God I get to do more of it. I hope the series does well, all that stuff. Every actor probably says, ‘It was great working with all these people,’ and you’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ It really was. I do a table read with everybody and I had met Amy Smart before and she’s really nice and cool. So I kind of did one meeting, but then everything else was with Luke, but all really cool people. So I would kill to do it again”
McHale will appear in Stargirl alongside Brec Bassinger, Luke Wilson, and Amy Smart when the show premieres on May 18th. You can catch on both DC Universe and The CW.
