Captain's Log: ST-CHI Sets a Course for Pizza and Tomfoolery with Todd Stashwick on DIBS
- Antal Bokor
- 31 minutes ago
- 3 min read
We kicked off Day Two of ST-CHI with none other than our favorite “dipshit from Chicago” Todd Stashwick, who Trekkers my know as Captain Liam Shaw from Picard’s Season 3. In case you didn't know, he comes by that moniker honestly, as Stashwick is a genuine Chicago dipshit. This panel was full of hometown love, as it was also a live taping of Chicago History’s podcast DIBS hosted by Nick Sarantos, who deftly steered the ship between Stashwick's storied roles and hometown tales.
Stashwick comes onto stage singing “Sweet Home Chicago,” full from days of pizza eating. Right away the rules were set: no questions about Stashwick’s portrayal of Paladin in the upcoming MCU series Visionquest, and no questions about Star Trek: Legacy, which seems all but dead to us outside observers.
The pair did get to talk about Stashwick as Paladin, and how he got both that and his infamous hometown captain role:
“Terry Matalas, who was the showrunning of 12 Monkeys, and also the showrunning of Season 3 of Picard, and he created the role of Shaw (Season 3 Picard) for me, which is super humbling.
When he called me and said, “hey do you want to want to be (in Picard)? I’m writing a Starfleet captain for you.
I said ‘I can’t wait to get to see who plays it because I know how Los Angeles works and when roles are created for you, the studio goes, ‘yeah, but we were thinking of Pedro Pascal.”
Apparently Kevin Feige, the head of the MCU, is also a huge Star Trek fan and loved season 3 of Picard. That led to Feige and Matalas having a conversation and Matals getting the job on Visionquest. Terry invited Stashwick to play the role of the bounty hunter Paladin, of which he says, “it’s all still in my wheelhouse. It’s like they’re all variants between Deacon (Stashwick’s 12 Monkeys character) Shaw and Paladin.”
From that point on, there was surprisingly little discussed about Star Trek, but lots and lots of discussion on Dungeons and Dragons. It turns out Stashwick is a huge fan, having played Dungeons and Dragons when he was younger, but it took a 30 year hiatus for him to return to the game and he hasn’t looked back since. Stashwick credits his improv background for being a good dungeon master, a pedigree that includes a stint in Second City with the likes of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert and other household comedy names. Stashwick later quipped, “I hope things work out for them. Fingers crossed.”
Todd Stashwick is a comedian, but he’s finding himself in a lot of genre work, which he loves. “Outside of doing comedy–Dharma and Greg, Will and Grace–I also love doing genre. I love doing Supernatural, I love doing Buffy (The Vampire Slayer), I love doing Law and Order, I like doing The Riches.” He continues, “(When I was a kid) I was as much of a Sci-Fi nerd as I was a Sci-Fi/Fantasy nerd, and so you know, I spent a lot of my life just as I’ve said before: either trying to be Han Solo or Peter Venkman (from Ghostbusters). So I either want to be Bill Murray playing Han Solo or Harrison Ford playing Peter Venkman” with Sarantos joking “let’s do t he rest of the interview with you as Bill Murray.”
Chicago is lucky to have Todd Stashwick representing us. He’s not just any dipshit from Chicago, he’s our dipshit.