The first time we were introduced to Green Lantern was when we first witnessed Ryan Reynolds’ Hal Jordan in 2011’s Green Lantern. Unfortunately, we all know how that turned out. The film was considered a failure when it grossed only $219 million with a budget of $200 million, plus there were other factors that made it descend into the spiral that we know today. Ryan Reynolds was so embarrassed by the film’s performance that he had to do Deadpool after it. Thus, a decade has passed, and we have almost forgotten the Green Lantern catastrophe of 2011. Well, most of us anyway.
We had prior information that Greg Berlanti, who previously penned the screenplay for the 2011 DC-produced Ryan Reynolds starter, had been back to the drawing board.
Unfortunately, we now have the latest news that the original script of the upcoming Green Lantern web series has been tossed into the trashcan and the faces of the upcoming drama have been swapped out for someone new from the Green Lantern universe.
The Original Green Lantern Script Has Been Scraped!
DC fans have been calling for Green Lantern to return to live-action ever since Ryan Reynolds‘ 2011 Green Lantern became a critical and financial disappointment. But those calls continue to go unanswered as the wait continues for a solo outing. DC’s most recent attempt at bringing Green Lantern back into the spotlight has been on the streaming front, as Warner Bros. has been developing an HBO Max series for the intergalactic hero. The big-budget streaming project had been initially planned to star Guy Gardner and Alan Scott, two well-known Green Lanterns from the DC universe, but it seems like the plans have shifted gears, just like the management inside Warner Bros.
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With Walter Hamada’s recent exit from Warner Bros., we also have news that the original screenwriter for the show Seth Grahame-Smith has departed the series after completing scripts for an entire season of eight episodes. Sources say Grahame-Smith, who signed on as writer and showrunner a year after Green Lantern was announced, chose to leave the project after weathering several regime changes at HBO Max, its parent company, producers Warner Bros. Television, and now DC Comics. Thus, the decision was made to scrape the whole script of the initial 8-episode season off the block, and the proposition that is now presented is a new script that would focus on John Stewart, one of the other well-known Lanterns of the universe.
The inclusion of John Stewart was not in the original pipeline of the series’ development. The show was supposed to focus on DC’s first Green Lantern, the openly gay Alan Scott, and Guy Gardner, with all the other heroes scattered in the vast multiverse of DC Comics. This sudden shift in focus to John Stewart has been due to the recent exits of the supervising personnel within the show’s production, and not due to any decisions taken by Peter Safran and James Gunn.
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What’s Next For Green Lantern?
John Stewart was originally not part of the roster of Green Lantern series characters, but he is now. As the rumbling of the individuals in the management continues, we can’t say for sure what will be in store for us now and what we might finally get as the end product, but we can be assured because Greg Berlanti is still on top of everything.
When HBO Max announced plans for Green Lantern in October 2019, Berlanti described it as the “biggest DC show ever made,” with plans for the series to go to space. Insiders at the time said it was poised to be the most expensive show DC ever made, which was given an estimation of around $120 Million, which has since been surpassed by House of the Dragon with an estimated budget of $200 Million. Still, we can expect this show to be aspirational as the original visionary is still keeping the reigns tightly held in his capable hands.
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Green Lantern, is set to stream on HBO Max in 2024.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
