Kevin Sussman, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe
Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max
[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Episode 9 of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, “Spoiler: We Couldn’t Get Green Lantern.”]
This week on HBO Max’s out-of-this-world spin-off of The Big Bang Theory, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Stuart & Co. received a superheroic assist in their journey back home.
Said help, however, didn’t come from the DC Comics hero the comedy’s creators ideally wanted.
In Season 1’s penultimate episode, “Spoiler: We Couldn’t Get Green Lantern,” the title pretty much says it all. As Stuart (Kevin Sussman), Denise (Lauren Lapkus), Bert (Brian Posehn), and Kripke (John Ross Bowie) plotted to escape the latest warped reality into which they’d been deposited — literally inside the pages of a comic book on display back at the Pasadena store — they were able to enlist The Flash aka Jay Garrick (Andy Ridings, Scrubs) in their cause. But not, as the title spoils, any Green Lantern.
Why was the spin-off “space cop”-blocked? As one might surmise, it had to do with another recent series premiere, over on HBO.
“They have a zillion dollars riding on Lanterns,” Stuart Fails co-creator Chuck Lorre explained to TV Guide, “so they were not about to let us make fun of Green Lantern.”
More from TV Guide:
Lanterns, which debuted Aug. 16 and also streams on HBO Max, stars Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) as Green Lantern legend Hal Jordan, while Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge) plays trainee John Stewart. Additionally, Nathan Fillion (The Rookie) is set to guest-star, reprising his Superman movie role as Green Lantern Guy Gardner.
Another DC Comics character switcheroo in the episode involved the villain who aimed to ice Stuart and his friends: Mister Freeze (Eric Allan Kramer, Lodge 49), who as Stuart noted is a Batman adversary. Since they were in alliance with The Flash, Captain Cold would have been a more apt frosty foe, he said.
“Part of it had to do with what characters DC was giving us,” says co-creator Zak Penn, “but part of it was we liked really leaning into the idea that the characters are noticing all these inconsistencies in the comic books world and are complaining about it — because that’s what these characters would do.”
Co-creator Bill Prady echoes that take. “The fun of it is that while running for their lives, he’s having the nerd discussion that this is the incorrect villain.”
Lorre meanwhile appreciated the recurring, ironic sight gag attributed to Stuart Fails’ Mister Freeze.
“I like a supervillain who slips on ice, even though he creates nothing but ice and snow. That I found charming,” he says.
Lorre and Prady are no strangers to negotiating usage of comic book properties, having previously done so on the original Big Bang Theory, where Stuart’s store at first featured mostly DC titles, and little Marvel.
“It was just always easier to deal with DC because there was a Warner Bros. connection,” Prady recalls. “Marvel wasn’t a ‘problem,’ they weren’t particularly stubborn, you just had to deal with them the same way you had to deal with any outside clearance, which is always more difficult. Whereas with DC we got a little ribbon.”
The Season 1 finale of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe premieres Thursday, Sept. 24 on HBO Max. Stuart Fails to Save the Universe has been renewed for a second season.