HBO Max's Green Lantern series will no longer center on Guy Gardner and Alan Scott. Instead, the upcoming science-fiction project will be redeveloped to focus on fan-favorite Green Lantern, John Stewart.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Green Lantern is undergoing a massive creative overhaul. Writer and showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith has departed the series after completing scripts for a full season of eight episodes. Finn Wittrock and Jeremy Irvine, who would have portrayed Guy Gardner and Alan Scott, respectively, are also no longer attached to the series. Executive producer Greg Berlanti and his Warner Bros. TV-based Berlanti Productions are all that remains from the previous incarnation. The creative overhaul has reportedly nothing to do with the recent news that James Gunn and Peter Safran will co-lead DC Studios as the duo does not start their new jobs until Nov. 1.
The live-action Green Lantern series has been in development since October 2019. When the project was first announced, the series was described as a decades-spanning story that would focus on a "multitude of other Lanterns — from comic book favorites to never-before-seen heroes." Green Lantern was later confirmed to focus on Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, and Guy Gardner, the ultra-macho Green Lantern. Wittrock and Irvine were cast in their respective roles in 2021. The original incarnation of the DC series would have also included newer Green Lanterns Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz.
Green Lantern Will Focus on John Stewart
Following Walter Hamada's recent departure from DC Films, the decision was made to refocus Green Lantern around John Stewart, who first appeared in 1971's Green Lantern #87 and was the second African-American superhero to appear in DC Comics. Although John Stewart was a popular addition to the comics, the character didn't achieve fan-favorite status until his inclusion in the DC Animated Universe series Justice League, where he was voiced by Phil LaMarr. The character more recently appeared in the DC Universe animated film Green Lantern: Beware My Power, voiced by Black Adam star Aldis Hodge.
Fans may be disappointed to hear that the Green Lantern series has started from scratch, but the upcoming series was met with a far better fate than the other DC projects on HBO Max. The streaming service's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, has been on a content purge in an effort to find $3 billion in savings. WBD recently trimmed HBO Max's upcoming DC offerings, starting with the Batgirl film. The DC anthology series Strange Adventures, which would have focused on "cautionary tales" about superheroes and supervillains, was also canceled while the upcoming fourth seasons of Titans and Doom Patrol have been rumored to be their respective lasts. However, although Green Lantern has survived the chopping block, its budget has not. The upcoming series' original budget was estimated in the "$120 million range," but will now be "significantly less" going forward.
Green Lantern does not have a premiere date on HBO Max at this time.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter