Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Stuart Fails To Save The Universe episode "Spoiler: We Couldn't Get Green Lantern." Stream the episode with an HBO Max subscription and read at your own risk!
Stuart Bloom and friends found themselves in a comic book adventure in the latest episode, but they didn't get a cameo appearance from the hottest DC shows on the 2026 TV schedule. It's disappointing because one could imagine Stuart Fails To Save The Universe could've done a Lanterns crossover in some way, though the EPs recently explained why Green Lantern was off the table.
After the tongue-in-cheek episode title stating they couldn't get Green Lantern, EP Zak Penn did confirm to Deadline that they did ask if they could feature the superhero. He explained the studio's reasoning, which ultimately resulted in them pivoting to another character instead:
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.
The Flash was swapped in to help Stuart, Denise, Kripke, and Bert take on Mr. Freeze, who was hell-bent on putting them on ice. It was odd to see a traditional Batman villain go up against The Flash from the Golden Age, but given the latter's ties to The Big Bang Theory, I was happy to see him.
Penn continued, noting that there was added value in using The Flash, especially in a series about dimension-hopping shenanigans:
If we needed something that’s going from dimension to dimension, Flash worked even better than Green Lantern.
Much like when they were in The Matrix, the fictional world they were in had many real-world consequences for Stuart Fails To Save The Universe. The Flash was able to use his cosmic treadmill to send the gang outside of the comic, which is the kind of silliness that could only happen in a comic from the Golden Age.
It was fun, but after seeing Lanterns air its most violent episode to date, I can see why HBO was leery about trying to combine the two. Sure, it would've been cool to see Kyle Chandler or Aaron Pierre pop up and beat up Mr. Freeze, and it's not like Stuart Fails To Save The Universe shies away from violence, but the tone would be off.
The important thing is that both shows are thriving over on HBO, and one of them already has the green light for Season 2. Stuart Fails To Save The Universe is going to have more episodes to tell its story, which feels increasingly complex as we get closer to the end of the inaugural run. Who is the mysterious villain in all of this, and will Stuart successfully be able to thwart the show's title and save the universe?
I'm not sure, but I'm excited to find out as new episodes hit HBO Max on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. I'm ready for the Season 1 finale, which only seems to tease that this story is going to get weirder going forward.
