Brec Bassinger promises DC's Stargirl season 3 murder mystery 'will shock you'
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Someone is about to get murdered on DC's Stargirl, and series star Brec Bassinger warns that everyone is a suspect.
The CW's superhero drama returns for season 3 with a murder mystery arc — and even though a well-known character is about to get killed, Bassinger tells EW that fans can expect a story that's "much less dark" than Eclipso's reign of terror thanks to the new "Frenemies" tagline.
"Tone-wise, our showrunner Geoff [Johns] wants each season to be totally different, which you saw between season 1 and season 2, and for season 3, he knew he wanted the supervillains and heroes living in a town in harmony," Bassinger says. "It was actually our director/stunt coordinator, Walter Garcia, who threw out the word 'frenemy.' He was like, 'It's like they're frenemies,' and Geoff just jumped on that. He loved it so much that it became the title of our season."
Below, Bassinger teases what fans can expect from DC's Stargirl: Frenemies, the murder mystery case, Starman's (Joel McHale) long-awaited return, and so much more.
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How is Courtney going to be handling juggling high school, all these reformed villains living in Blue Valley, and this new murder mystery happening all at the same time?
BREC BASSINGER: [Laughs] Honestly I love it, because she is still so young and she makes a lot of mistakes this season. I love that because there's so much going on and her heart wants one thing but her team wants another, and she messes up. I think that's completely reasonable. Even though she's a superhero, she's still a person, she's still a teenager. That's been one of my favorite parts of getting to play Courtney is balancing being a superhero while also balancing high school and figuring out who you are. This season dives more into that work-life balance and how she navigates that.
What can you tease about who the ultimate big bad of the season is as the JSA works to solve this murder mystery?
It will shock you. You will not see it coming. I think I was one of the only ones — I think it was maybe three people on set who knew the ending, me being one of them, and every person I've talked to when they read the script, or the editors when they watched the first cut, they were all shocked. At different times of the season, you'll think it's different people — and every time you'll be wrong. The ending will shock you.
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Who are Courtney's "frenemies" going to be this season?
Courtney, being the optimist human that she is, she's like, "They're all my friends." First we have Cindy who she feels has turned a new leaf and has changed, so she's in support of her joining the JSA. We have Artemis who wants to join the JSA, but she's already getting so much backlash from her team about letting Cindy join, that I don't know how far she can push it. And then we have Cameron, and they've had a slow burning relationship in season 1 and it really comes back into the limelight in this season. As much as she wants to be with him, there's so many obstacles.
I can't decide which relationship I'm more excited to see: Courtney and Cindy's new "friendship" or Courtney and Cameron's long-simmering romance.
Yeah, it's literally opposite. With Cindy, it started off seeing each other as archenemies. But then through time, they've been brought together and they really understand each other. They both have history with their fathers so they bond in that aspect. And then looking at Cameron, who from the very beginning, they just got along and have this instant connection, and then now Cameron doesn't even know, but they have so much history behind them that causes a lot of tension with Courtney wanting to be with him and cause a lot of tension with her and her friends and her and family because she does want to be with him, but there might be too much there. Those relationships are opposite in that way.
As much as I love Courtney and Cameron together, it feels like a doomed relationship from the start.
It does feel like it. Right? Because he doesn't know any of it. At this point, I think he's literally the only one in the dark. Poor him! [Laughs] But also, it puts Courtney in an uncomfortable position because she wants to be with him and she wants to be honest with him, but will that be the end of it? She's almost holding on to it until the doom comes. Because is it inevitable? It does kind feel like it. But it has been such a slow burn.
How does the "frenemies" tagline impact the tone of the season?
It's a murder mystery, that's what we were going for. And we definitely did some unique things in some scenes, going back and forth to flashbacks at the crime scene and then saying something and then changing the words, and it definitely gave it a different feel. There's something our showrunner always says, regardless of the tone of the season, he always wants to fall back on the three "H's: heroics, humor, and heart." So despite the storyline or regardless of the tone, you can always assume that we will have all three of those things.
Now that you've had Courtney's introduction/origin story in the first two seasons, what were you excited to dig deeper on with her in season 3?
All the different relationships, especially with the new relationship between her and Starman. There's so many questions there. And then also just continually exploring the relationships between her and Cameron, her and Cindy, her and Yolanda, her and Pat — which has evolved so much from the beginning — and then having this new element of Starman living in the basement.
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Speaking of Starman being back, the biggest question going into this season is what his arrival means for Courtney and the Cosmic Staff. What can you tease about what we're going to see from that?
I had those same questions coming into the season. Will the Staff work for him? Will the Staff continue to work for her? Who does the Staff belong to? Why is he back? Did he come back to take the Staff? I had those questions as an actor and then Courtney had those same questions as well. Even though she's worried, she does look up to him, even seeing him as a father figure, so it is a positive thing having him back. It's made pretty clear from the beginning what his true intentions are with coming back. And then it's all about finding the balance of, can Starman and Stargirl hold the Cosmic Staff simultaneously, and is that reasonable? Is that possible? They have to find that balance.
What did you love about exploring that dynamic with Joel McHale, now that Starman and Stargirl are finally in the same place?
I love how, even with so many similarities, they're so different. They go about being the holder of this Cosmic Staff so differently. I love Starman, he's one of my favorite characters, but he has a bit of an ego. He's almost more of what you think of a traditional superhero being: it's cut and dry, and black and white. And Courtney, especially what she's gone through with these past two seasons, she looks a lot more in the gray area and she's a lot more open-minded to things. And even though she learns a lot from Starman, he ends up learning quite a bit from her in the different ways they go about being superheroes and trying to find that middle ground.
If season 1 was Courtney's origin story and season 2 saw her battling the darkness of Eclipso, what does season 3 represent for her?
Finding harmony between the good and the bad. Season 2, she definitely discovered that there's darkness in everyone and there's good in everyone, so season 3 is about finding that harmony, what it means being a superhero, and how to balance that.
DC's Stargirl season 3 premieres Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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