The Big Bang Theory spin-off wanted Green Lantern — DC kept him for Lanterns, so the episode got the Flash
Co-creator Zak Penn explains why Stuart Fails to Save the Universe went to Gotham and Central City instead: DC would give them anyone but Green Lantern.
If you watched the last crossover episode of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe and wondered why we got The Flash zipping through worlds instead of a certain ring-slinging space cop, you are not alone. Turns out, none of this was the original plan, and the behind-the-scenes wrangling is almost as nerdy as anything that made it on screen.
The Green Lantern Roadblock
Series creator Zak Penn spilled some details about what actually happened with the episode’s guest superhero. The writers’ first choice for their big DC cameo was Green Lantern—a fairly logical pick given the cosmic scale of the show’s multiverse gags. No dice, though. DC and HBO had already earmarked Lantern for their live-action Lanterns series.
Here’s how Penn explained it in an interview:
"They told us we couldn’t have him because of Lanterns, which I understood. Chuck was a little grumbly about it, but Bill and I pointed out to him that Flash was actually perfect."
Instead of throwing a tantrum (or at least, after a little grumbling from Chuck), the team took what DC would give them. In this case, that was The Flash—and honestly, it ended up working better for the breakneck, cross-dimensional story they wanted to tell anyway. Using a speedster to ping-pong between realities is basically a cheat code.
Penn’s own words from the same chat:
"If we needed something that’s going from dimension to dimension, Flash worked even better than Green Lantern."
The episode traps Stuart and co. in a comic book, being menaced by Mr. Freeze in Gotham City before they leg it to Central City in search of Golden Age Flash. Apparently he was picked partly for his, well, vintage absurdity ('Golden Age Flash appealed to us a lot, just because he's kind of silly. No offense to Golden Age Flash’, Penn said elsewhere). The writers also seemed to enjoy deliberately bungling the logic of comic location and villain assignment—putting Gotham and Central City wherever, dumping the wrong bad guy into the wrong city, and generally playing up the nonsense as a punchline, all with the wink of the show’s comedy format.
Making the Madness Work
Penn made it pretty clear that, in comedy, breaking the “multiverse rules” was part of the job, and they actually had characters call out how daft things got. Visually, director Robbie McNeill amped up the comic book silliness with panel-style framing. The writing team also joined forces with DC’s own Jim Lee to develop all the cameo comic characters—Lee was hinting about the whole partnership already at San Diego Comic-Con, but funnily enough, Green Lantern was off-limits from the start. Or, as Penn remembers Lee and DC putting it: 'How can we help? Other than we won’t give you Green Lantern.'
- Originally planned: Green Lantern guest spot
- Lanterns series claimed the character, so DC said no
- The Flash became the replacement, which fit the multiverse plot even better
- Writers and director leaned fully into comic book absurdity, both visually and on the script level
- DC’s Jim Lee involved in bringing comic characters to screen (minus Green Lantern, obviously)