DC's Stargirl TV Show Casts Brec Bassinger as Courtney Whitmore

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DC's Stargirl has found its lead with School of Rock actress Brec Bassinger being cast as Courtney Whitmore. The upcoming TV series will debut on DC Universe, which launched on Sept. 15. The show's first season will consist of 13 episodes.

Stargirl is one of several shows set to air on DC's new streaming service. Other live-action shows in various stages of development include Titans, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, and a Superman prequel series titled Metropolis. Titans will premiere next month, while the others won't air until at least 2019. Stargirl was officially announced at SDCC 2018. The series will be written and produced by Geoff Johns, who created the character in 1999.

EW reports that Brec Bassinger will play the lead role of Courtney Whitmore in Stargirl. The 19-year-old actress has starred in Nickelodeon's Bella and the Bulldogs and Hulu's All Night. Johns says "there is no other actor on the planet who embodies her more than Brec Bassinger." Bassinger will be the third actress to play a live-action Stargirl. The character was played by Britt Irvin in Smallville, and by Sarah Grey in the second season of The CW's Legends of Tomorrow.

The character's official description offers plenty of details on what to expect from Bassinger's "smart, athletic and above all else kind" Courtney Whitmore:

This high school teenager's seemingly perfect life hits a major speedbump when her mother gets married and her new family moves from Los Angeles, California to Blue Valley, Nebraska. Struggling to adapt to a new school, make new friends and deal with a new step-family, Courtney discovers her step-father has a secret; he used to be the sidekick to a superhero. 'Borrowing' the long-lost hero's cosmic staff, Courtney becomes the unlikely inspiration for an entirely new generation of superheroes.

The description confirms the show's interpretation of Stargirl's origin story, which comes straight from the comic books and involves Whitmore becoming a superhero after learning of her stepfather's secret past. In the comics, she uses the cosmic staff of Starman and the gear of the Star-Spangled Kid, which was found in her stepfather's belongings. Her stepfather was S.T.R.I.P.E, a sidekick to The Star-Spangled Kid aka Sylvester Pemberton. Created in 1941, Pemberton was a superhero in the Golden Age of Comics and a member of the Justice Society of America. Following in his footsteps, Whitmore eventually joins the Justice Society and becomes a mainstay of the group.

It was revealed at SDCC 2018 that Stargirl's mission in the series will be to "bring back the legacy of the Justice Society," which means that Stargirl may become the leader of a new iteration of the classic superhero team. It's unclear what young new heroes will join her on her journey, or how her story will connect with the original group. However, Johns has promised that "all the Justice Society heroes" will appear.