The ongoing DC Extended Universe has been an overcomplicated mess of a cinematic experiment, and the scale of its narrative varies wildly. The DCEU has been set to launch into its first big space opera for years now, but that entry remains largely shrouded in blackest night.
Green Lantern first appeared on the comic book page in 1940, but the modern incarnation of the franchise is largely unrecognizable. The many characters to bear that title have become mainstays of the comic book world. Green Lantern has had a tough time over the years with his most well-known adaptations being an excellent joke at his expense in The Lego Movie and a dreadful comic book movie. Now that Ryan Reynolds has spent years mocking his previous superhero performance, it's finally time to try again in a new format.
The Green Lantern series was originally announced in 2019 by prolific Arrowverse producer Greg Berlanti. The series has yet to enter production and exists alongside multiple other DCEU projects for the character. John Stewart, one of the many characters to wield the power ring, was supposed to appear in Zack Snyder's Justice League. He was set to be portrayed by Wayne T. Carr, but the studio removed the character, leading Snyder to replace him with Martian Manhunter. A Green Lantern Corps movie is supposedly in development to be released late this year or sometime next year. In between all of this, a streaming series set to head straight to HBO Max is currently in some stage of production.
Green Lantern has been kept quiet and under wraps for the most part, but there are a few useful details. The first question for many fans of the comics is which Green Lantern will the series be focusing on. The answer, in this case, is several of them. Alan Scott, Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, and Simon Baz have all been mentioned as characters in the series. Scott is the original Golden Age version of the character who was more magical than science-fictional. Gardner was originally created as a sidekick for Hal Jordan, but he attained his own personality as a near-parody of his predecessor. Cruz was introduced in 2013 as Prime Earth's first female Lantern for the sector and quickly became a fan favorite. Baz is her frequent partner and a Lebanese-American street racer who earned the ring while being tortured at Guantanamo Bay.
With at least four Lanterns in the mix, the series seems to be going for a time-spanning adventure. It has been pitched as something akin to an anthology, exploring the stories of each Lantern in their period. There's no clear word on the plot, but focusing on the origin story or a day in the life of four of the lesser-known Lanterns is a great idea for the series. Fans surely noticed the absence of the best known Green Lanterns; Hal Jordan, Kyle Crane, and John Stewart. Stewart is almost certainly still being saved for a film adaptation. That might be the intention behind Jordan and Crane, but the series could also be intending to bring attention to lesser-known characters. The Green Lantern Corps is a massive organization that contains seemingly endless soldiers, many of which are fan-favorite characters. Rather than picking one of the big figures, as the 2009 movie did, showing off a group and letting the fan response determine which of them get a standalone project is a good way to handle the Corps.
Some cast and crew have been announced for the series, but most of it remains quiet. Only two of the Lanterns have been publicly cast. Guy Gardner will be portrayed by Finn Wittrock, who is probably best known for multiple roles in American Horror Story or his recent role in Deep Water. Original Green Lantern Alan Scott is set to be portrayed by Jeremy Irvine, who previously starred in 2011's War Horse. The rest of the cast hasn't been announced, but Gardner and Scott are likely to be the most well-known characters and the supposed draw of the series for fans.
One director has been listed on the project so far, Lee Toland Krieger. Krieger has previously directed a couple of episodes of Superman & Lois and Shadow and Bone, along with films like The Age of Adaline. He's listed as a director for the first and second episode and as a producer on the show, but it's currently unknown whether he'll be directing the rest of the series.
Seth Grahame-Smith is listed as showrunner and co-writer. He's best known as the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but he also wrote the screenplay for The Lego Batman Movie. The other listed writer is Marc Guggenheim, creator of Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow and one of four screenwriters on 2009's Green Lantern. One of the other co-writers was Greg Berlanti. While the last Green Lantern project was a mess, Berlanti and Guggenheim have proven to be strong DC superhero writers, so this may be their shot at redemption for the famed DC hero.
The upcoming Green Lantern series has yet to reveal a screenshot, let alone a trailer. Some good news and some bad news surround this hotly anticipated HBO Max project.