Community and The Soup star, Joel McHale has just landed his first superhero role with the DC Universe streaming network. While it’s not his first time appearing in a superhero property (he appeared in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2), this will be the first time that the actor will be donning the tights and getting some powers of his own.
Variety has announced that he’ll be playing the role of Starman alongside Brec Bassinger in her upcoming Stargirl series for the network. While not wearing his cape and tights, Mchale’s character will go by the name of Sylvester Pemberton.
If you aren’t familiar with the character, Starman has origins that go back to 1941 when he was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Jack Burnley. The first Starman’s alter ego was Ted Knight. Eventually, the title was taken over by his kids, David and Jack Knight. The character is a trained astronomer and has a cosmic staff that allows him to fly and manipulate energy.
Meanwhile, Sylvester Pemberton is the original alter ego of another character, The Star-Spangled kid/ Skyman, who was also created in 1941, but by Jerry Siegel and Hal Sherman. He wore a cosmic-powered belt that gave him his powers. there’s a good chance that the new version of the character will probably be something of a mash-up of the diverse source material.