The young new star of Disney's adaptation of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, Grace VanderWaal, took the stage at D23 today to introduce the film in which she makes her acting debut. She promised that her character is "just completely herself," painting the movie as an inspirational story for young kids.
Julia Hart is directing the film from a script she wrote with her partner Jordan Horowitz. Kristin Hahn created the screen adaptation from Spinelli's award winning novel about non-conformity and being proud of your own style and personality.
The novel follows Leo Borlock, a normal kid, who under no circumstances will ever stand out. Then Stargirl arrives at Mica High and changes everything. After 15 years of homeschooling, Stargirl enter tenth grade, a colorful, ukulele-playing whirlwind. As the school society shuns her for all of her uniqueness, Leo falls in love with her. Through Stargirl, Spinelli explores the tense and emotional journey of high school, the nature of conformity and the joy of first love.
The casting of Grace VanderWaal is fitting seeing as she won American's Got Talent at 12 years old for playing the ukulele. Following her win, she released a top selling EP in 2016 with her debut "Perfectly Imperfect." Her debut album, Just the Beginning, came out a year later, and then she set off on her first ever sold-out headline tour of the same name. VanderWaal reportedly beat out 700 other girls for the top spot in the upcoming Disney Plus film. In an earlier interview with Deadline, Hart had this to say about the opportune casting.
"I knew she was Stargirl almost immediately. The world knows what a talented performer she is, and I cannot wait for everyone to see just how many sides there are to this special and magical young woman"
Along with co-writing the script, Horowitz will serve as executive producer. Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Lee Stollman will serve as producers under The Gotham Group's banner.
Stargirl is joining a powerful slate of films and shows coming to Disney Plus in the fall. The streaming service's D23 Expo panel today announced a slew of upcoming content including a Lizzie Maguire revival, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against The Universe, a Monsters Inc spinoff Monsters at Work, a series of 10 short films that follow Tony Hale's character from Toy Story 4 titled Forky Asks a Question, a nonfiction show about perseverance titled Encore, and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
Fans finally got to see some Star Wars footage with The Mandalorian and a quick surprise appearance by Ewan McGregor who will reprise his role as Obi-Wan in a series.
Of Course Marvel also took the stage to announce a few new projects including: Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk and Moon Knight. They also gave some more details on the projects previously announced at San Diego Comic Con 2019 like What if?, Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision.
Disney Plus will launch on November 12, and is set to take the streaming landscape by storm. The interview comes to us from Deadline