The title might have you confused as the film is literally called Hollywood Stargirl, yet it turns out that the film wasn’t originally going to film in Los Angeles. The first entry, simply titled Stargirl, explored the valleys and deserty-location of Arizona. Yet, while the sequel ended up bringing the character to Los Angeles, director Julia Hart had other plans for the film.
In the film’s official press event, the director talked about how they originally were going to film somewhere else but the pandemic ended up changing their plans quite dramatically. Sadly, she doesn’t reveal where the original location was going to be, but it looks like being stuck at home definitely inspired a new direction for the sequel.
It’s funny, originally we were gonna set it somewhere else and then the pandemic happened. And my husband and co-writer, Jordan Horowitz, and I was gonna go on a trip and go to where we originally were gonna set the movie. And then the pandemic happened and so we were here.
Julia Hart
While plans changed, it inspired them to “write a love letter to both LA but also all of the people we missed while we were all stuck at home.” It also worked in their favor, as the sequel is not adapting the Love, Stargirl novel but took its own direction. It gave them more creative freedom on how to tackle the project and create the love letter as a result.
