The movie adaptation of the Stargirl novel ends on a fairly final note, but there's still a chance that Stargirl will get a sequel on Disney+, namely because there's already a sequel to the book. It's called Love, Stargirl and it picks up about a year after her family moved away from Mica, Arizona.
The Stargirl movie doesn't end when Stargirl (Grace VanderWaal) leaves. Instead, it jumps ahead in time with Leo (Graham Verchere) going off to college and doing a voiceover about how mythical the Stargirl stories would become over the years. In the book, this epilogue looks 15 years into the future. However, the sequel Love, Stargirl brings the timeline back to shortly after she first moves to a new town.
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The sequel is told from Stargirl's point-of-view in contrast to the first book, which is narrated by Leo. This change allowed fans to finally get inside Stargirl's head via diary-style letters chronicling a year in her life in a new town. In her letters, she reminisces about her time in Mica with Leo, which is how the sequel includes his character even though they no longer live near each other.
Author Jerry Spinelli said in an interview with the Upper Darby Sellers Library blog that he never intended to write a sequel to Stargirl, but he realized this format was the best way to get around the fact that the original novel wraps up so cleanly. "[Since] I could not have Stargirl and Leo physically interact, I thought a letter/journal format would be the next best way to bring them 'together.' I added imagined conversations between Stargirl and Leo to further promote a sense of real-time interaction," Spinelli said.
Graham Verchere, who plays Leo, and Grace VanderWaal, who plays Stargirl, are reportedly spearheading the effort to get Love, Stargirl adapted by Disney+ as well. They want their story to continue, even if it's just via imagined conversations in Stargirl's journal entries. “Me and Graham are [talking about the sequel]. Trying to set up meetings," VanderWaal told ComingSoon. Meanwhile, director Julia Hart played coy with the outlet when asked about sequel chances. "I'm not allowed to say," she said.
Well, that's not a no.
Well, that's not a no.
If Stargirl gets enough viewers, it would make sense for Disney+ to give it a sequel — especially since the source material already exists. The production timeline on a follow-up could be anywhere from a year to two years, so it could still be a while before Stargirl is back on our screens. However, impatient fans can read (or re-read) the novels to tide them over until we get news. But at least this is one of those projects that feels like it's basically almost a done deal.