Teenage girls face many challenges in our modern times and Courtney Whitmore is no exception. The young heroine known as Stargirl may have defeated Eclipso, but the aftermath has left a lot of unanswered questions. For example, how is Starman alive and what does his return mean for her? In addition, the formerly villainous Crocks have moved into her neighborhood, and Cindy Burman is petitioning to join the Justice Society. To top it off, Courtney still has feelings for Cameron Mahkent, son of the deceased super-villain Icicle. (Is it any wonder this storyline is subtitled “Frenemies”?) There’s a lot to unpack, so we sat down with Stargirl herself, Brec Bassinger, who broke down everything about Stargirl season three…

Now that the threat of Eclipso has been taken care of, where is Courtney emotionally?

Like the song says, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." I feel like the ending with Eclipso really was going to be one way or the other. It was either going to completely turn her dark, or she was going to come out on the other side stronger, and that's what happened. You saw the heroes and the villains teaming up together to go against Eclipso and I think that really solidified in Courtney that even the bad people have some good in them. I think coming into season three, she's just so open minded to everyone being good and everyone having that good in them. I think she's very positive coming into season three.

That bleeds into the next question. Courtney wants to see the good in everyone and now Cindy Burman wants to join the Justice Society. Where is Courtney’s head in all of this, and how does it change the team dynamic?

She's open to it. Beth is a little too, but more so Courtney. Because of what happened last season, she wants to give people chances. She wants to support the good in people so they can thrive in that. Circumstances sometimes can affect people, and she wants to give people the best circumstances possible. That being said, her fellow teammates Rick and Yolanda are not on board. Obviously, they have more history with her, specifically Yolanda. It's not only just about Courtney, but it's about what they want too, so it's kind of Courtney pushing for them to come on board with it. It's such a fun dynamic.

Speaking of fun dynamics, last season ended with the Crocks moving into the neighborhood. What is life like in the Dugan-Whitmore household with the Crocks as neighbors?

I love the Crocks. I think they might be, if not my favorite characters, definitely some of my favorite characters in our show. Just the little tendencies they have. They've been villains for so long, they just can't help but have those thoughts. Watching them fight that is just so funny to me. Now that they’re our neighbors, I love the newfound relationship between Tigress and Barbara. And then Pat and Sportsmaster. Their relationship as neighbors is so fun to me, and there is a lot of good stuff throughout the season with that.

We have Cindy in the JSA, the Crocks across the street and you also have a Starman in your basement. How is Courtney handling Sylvester’s return, and what was it like to film with Joel McHale?

Joel is literally the coolest and funniest human being alive. He's funny on TV, but he's equivalently as funny in real life. It was a running joke on set, who would get the button of the scene? Was it going to be Luke (Wilson) or Joel because they would just fight over who gets the last one-liner of the scene. Sometimes it would just go on for sixty seconds of them just going back and forth, and finally the director would be like, "Okay, you're both funny, we've got to cut!"

It was genuinely just so fun to have him on set. From a story perspective, I love it. It has been a slow-burner. We learned that Starman was alive back at the end of season one. It took us a whole season, but finally we get some answers. Why is Starman back? How did he come back from the dead? What will he be like? What will he think of the people who killed him and his friends living in the same neighborhood as him? I think there are a lot of interesting questions proposed with his arrival.

Let’s dive into the Courtney and Cameron relationship, or Camney, as the fans call it. It’s been two seasons of teases. How do things look for season three?

Yeah, in the first season trailer we see the kiss! Camney is front and center! Talk about another slow-burner. I didn't know if it would ever happen, but finally they get to put their hearts forward. It's young love, puppy love, and it's very sweet, but obviously there are a lot of obstacles there with his father being Icicle and everything that went down with Icicle and Stargirl. I think she feels a lot of guilt going into it and wants to be honest, but her team doesn't necessarily want that. So once again, she is fighting what the team wants versus what she feels is the right thing to do. That's a big challenge she faces all throughout the season with different things, but with Camney especially.

Superman and Lois is on hiatus and The Flash will not be starting its final season until 2023. This means that when Stargirl premieres, you're going to be the only DC show on network television. Stargirl will be carrying the torch and representing DCTV! How does that feel?

That's crazy. When I got cast on Stargirl, we had Supergirl, Flash and Arrow. There were superheroes everywhere! I feel like it's just an honor to be part of this universe and it feels a little surreal. I hadn't realized that, and that's really cool. No pressure! (laughs)

Last year we talked about the Stargirl Spring Break Special, and how you got to write a little feature in the back. The story from that one-shot will be continuing in the limited series Stargirl: The Lost Children. Will you be contributing to that as well?

Oh my god, I hadn't thought of that. There haven't been talks about it, but now that you mentioned it, I'm going to bring it up to Geoff (Johns) because I had way too much fun doing that! I saw the new comic (Earth-Prime: Stargirl) and I love that they changed the graphics. They looked exactly like us, which made me so happy. There's even Buddy the dog. Pat looked exactly like Luke Wilson, Barbara looked like Amy (Smart) and Courtney looked like me. It was very cool!

Stargirl returns with its third season tonight at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. CST) on The CW. Looking for more on Courtney and the JSA? Visit our official Stargirl series page!