STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT

THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM FOR THE LIVE ACTION VERSION OF DC COMICS’ STARGIRL, AS BREC BASSINGER CRASHES ONTO SCREENS FOR A NEW SERIES OF ADVENTURES. WE SPEAK TO SHOWRUNNER GEOFF JOHNS

- BRYAN CAIRNS

GEOFF JOHNS HAS A RICH history with comic books and Hollywood. Over the course of his career, the 47-year-old has served as DC Entertainment’s President and Chief Creative Officer. Johns has not only penned various comic books, most notably Justice Society Of America and Green Lantern, but also scripted episodes of Smallville, Arrow, The Flash and Titans. His fingerprints are all over such feature films as Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Aquaman and Shazam!. But no project has been more personal, or a greater labour of love, than the forthcoming Stargirl TV series.

“I moved out to LA from Detroit in the late ’90s and worked for director Richard Donner, who did Superman and The Goonies,” Johns tells SFX. “My sister died in a plane crash in 1996. It was flight TWA Flight 800, which went off of Long Island. She was a foreign exchange student to France. The first comic I wrote was Stars And S.T.R.I.P.E., which introduced Stargirl. She was inspired by, and based on, my sister. She was pretty enthusiastic and positive and over-confident, which is sometimes funny. She was a bit naïve, but she had a good heart and spirit. I wanted to bottle that spirit up and make sure it was still around. The character took on a life of its own as I wrote her.