Stargirl’s Luke Wilson Got Confused On DC Universe Character Names

Luke Wilson has spent a lot of time in Hollywood, but not a lot of time around superheroes. That apparently showed — with some humorous side effects — on the set of DC’s Stargirl, which will debut next week. The veteran actor behind movies like The Royal Tenenbaums and Legally Blonde joked that his inability to keep the various heroes and villains of the DC Universe straight undermined his ability to seem like an authority with the younger cast on the set of the adaptation, which centers on the next generation of heroes picking up from the Justice Society of America. Brec Bassinger stars in the series as Courtney Whitmore/Stargirl, Amy Smart as her mother, and Wilson as Smart’s husband, Pat Dugan (who pilots a mech known as STRIPE).

Wilson, who joked that Johnny Thunder and Hawkman sound the same to him, wasn’t a comic book fan when he was growing up. At least, not superhero comic books. He told O’Brien that he read MAD magazine, which of course has been a DC Comics publication for quite a few years at this point.

“I was really a MAD Magazine guy. That was the first thing I remember really getting organized to do was to get a subscription to MAD,” Wilson told Conan O’Brien during an appearance on Conan. Headded, “I did have fun getting into the superhero world. I did have trouble — there’s so many characters, villains and supervillains, and villains that used to be good, and bad….When we were doing the show, Brec Bassinger, who plays my stepdaughter, Stargirl — she’s a great actress dn I went into the project thinking, I’m gonna kind of teach these kids how it’s done, and hopefully I’ll teach these kids some of the things I’ve learned from these great actors over the years…and then I got there and all these kids were such pros. Brec, for instance, knew not only her dialogue but my dialogue. I’d get mixed up with these superheroes. We’d be doing a scene and I’d say like, ‘Look, we gotta get to Iceman’s lair right now,’ and she’d say, ‘what about Icicle?’ and I’d say, ‘Look, we’ve gotta get to Icicle’s lair right now!’ They got to where they wouldn’t even cut. There would be scenes where we’d finish doing something and I’d have to go Brec and say, ‘look, I’m sorry, I always get Johnny Thunder and Hawkman mixed up. For some reason they sound the same to me.’”

Stargirl will follow Courtney (Brec Bassinger), a high school student whose life is turned upside when her mother remarries and moves them to Nebraska. More than that, there’s her stepfather’s connection to the Justice Society of America as her stepfather Pat Dugan? He was STRIPE, the sidekick to Starman. The series will take inspiration from the Stars and STRIPE comic illustrated by Lee Moder, and according to co-creator and executive producer Geoff Johns will also have a tone similar to that of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The series will also star Amy Smart as Barbara Whitmore, Luke Wilson as Pat Dugan/STRIPE, Joel McHale as Sylvester Pemberton/Starman, Lou Ferrigno Jr. as Rex Tyler/Hourman, Brian Stapf as Ted Grant/Wildcat, Henry Thomas as Charles McNider/Doctor Midnight, Joy Osmanski as Paula Brooks/Tigress, Neil Hopkins as Lawrence “Crusher” Crock/Sportsmaster, and Nelson Lee as Dragon King. The series joins both DC Universe’s eclectic array of original programming, including Titans, Young Justice: Outsiders, Doom Patrol, and Harley Quinn, as well as The CW‘s roster of The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and Black Lightning.

Stargirl premieres Monday, May 18, on DC Universe. On Tuesday, May 19, the series will have its broadcast debut on the CW, airing at 8 p.m. ET/PT, before a new episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.