UPDATE: DC Studios head James Gunn has dismissed the report about the Green Lantern series' cancellation and plans for a film appearance, though he provided no further details. The original article, titled "REPORT: Warner Bros. Scraps Green Lantern Series for HBO Max," can be found below.
A new report suggests that the Green Lantern series, originally announced for premiere on the HBO Max streaming service, has been scrapped.
According to scooper DanielRPK, the series was cancelled for unknown reasons. However, the pundit also claimed DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has plans for a film featuring Green Lantern. At the time of writing, no official announcements have been made concerning the fate of the project.
This follows previous reports suggesting both the showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith and stars Jeremy Irvine and Finn Wittrock, who were attached to play Alan Scott and Guy Gardner, respectively, had left the show, as the project was being revamped to center on John Stewart, rather than multiple members of the Green Lantern Corps.
It was also reported that the show's budget had been significantly cut. When the show was announced, it was described as the "biggest DC show ever made" with an estimated budget of approximately $120 million. Following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, this budget was slashed, though the later figures are unknown.
The New DCU
On top of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the recently rebranded of DC Films to DC Studios has resulted in a number of major changes. These include scrapped projects such asthe Man of Steel sequel, Wonder Woman 3 and the untitled Batman film starring Michael Keaton. At the time of writing, the projects still set for release are Blue Beetle, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and the Penguin-centric spinoff of The Batman.
While there have been vocal critics of the reported changes, it is not something that took Gunn and co-CEO Peter Safran by surprise. Gunn previously stated, "One of the things Peter & I were aware of when we took the job as heads of DC Studios was a certain minority of people online that could be, well, uproarious & unkind, to say the least." He added, "We were aware there would be a period of turbulence when we took this gig, & we knew we would sometimes have to make difficult & not-so-obvious choices, especially in the wake of the fractious nature of what came before us. But this means little to us in comparison to our jobs as artists & custodians in helping to create a wide & wonderful future for DC."
Source: DanielRPK, via Twitter