Less than a day after the news that James Gunn and Peter Safran would take charge of DC Studios for Warner Bros., we learned that HBO Max's Green Lantern TV series had been scrapped.
A few months later, DC Studios announced Lanterns, a TV show revolving around Hal Jordan and John Stewart. They'd seemingly been off-limits to the other show (which may or may not have been set in the DCEU) as the idea was to put the spotlight on Guy Gardner and Alan Scott, with Finn Wittrock and Jeremy Irvine tapped to play the heroes.
Gunn has yet to cast his Hal and John, but SUPERMAN will see Nathan Fillion suit up as Guy.
Addressing a fan on Threads, the filmmaker addressed the cancellation. "I didn't think it was in the DCEU, but it was before my time. That said, I think Finn's a talented guy and he'll be okay," Gunn said. "Writers, directors, actors have projects fall through every day. We've all had it happen many times. It's not being 'done dirty', it's a part of the job."
Having been part of the Hollywood system for decades, Gunn clearly feels little sympathy for those who had been developing the previous Green Lantern series.
Writer and showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith (one of the many filmmakers to take a crack at The Flash movie before "creative differences" came into play) had already departed the series despite completing scripts for a full eight-episode season. It appears he chose to do so after yet another round of executive changes at Warner Bros Discovery.
Once Walter Hamada exited DC Films, the decision was made to start over and focus on John, so Gunn isn't lying when he says Green Lantern had been scrapped long before he signed up to reboot the DCU.
There were budgetary concerns about Green Lantern in its previous form, while many fans were upset to see Hal and John sidelined in preference of Guy and Alan (the story was going to play out across two different time periods).
The fact it didn't happen isn't the end of the world and Lanterns looks to be the version of this story comic book fans do want to see. To keep the budget of this Max series under control, the plan is to follow its lead characters as they investigate "a terrestrial-based mystery."
Following some recent hints from Gunn on social media, we're expecting Hal and John to be among the next wave of DCU characters cast by DC Studios.