Before the idea was rejigged for the show that eventually became Lanterns, Seth Grahame-Smith and Marc Guggenheim were developing a very different take on Green Lantern for HBO.
Lee Toland Krieger was on board to helm the first two episodes, and the story was reportedly going to play out over multiple time periods, with Finn Wittrock set to play Guy Gardner for the '80s setting, and Jeremy Irvine in talks to play Alan Scott in the '40s.
Simon Baz, Jessica Cruz, and a new alien Lantern named Bree Jarta were also going to feature.
Now, Guggenheim has taken to his Substack to share our first look at the scrapped series - which may have ended up being titled Emerald Knights - via some concept art.
The artwork features several Green Lanterns doing battle in space, Wittrock as Gardner (minus the character's signature bowl cut), and Bree Jarta (this role had not been cast, but it looks like they may have used Janelle Monáe's likeness for the concept design).
"I have to reach into my memory to recall other bits of trivia like that," Guggenheim wrote. "But I do remember that our original take took place in two time periods and had the Manhunters as the primary villains and my original title pitch was Emerald Knights
Wittrock spoke about missing out on the role of Guy Gardner in a 2024 interview.
"I had like 20 Green Lantern comics sitting in my closet. I was starting to read the comics, my five-year-old son, would find the comics and be like 'Dad, what's this?' And I was like, 'Research from a project that never was.' But yeah, it gave me a great education, into Green Lantern already. And now, I'm kind of hooked on to the story."
"So, it was definitely, I won't say it didn't sting to find out the news that it wasn't happening," he continued. "But, I think it was nice because I got to realize what I would need to do to prepare for a role like that. So, hopefully, some other comic book role will, the one that's supposed to be, will come my way. And then at least like have some kind of heads up about how to enter that world."
Based on this artwork, do you think this would have been a better GL show than the one we got? Let us know in the comments.
HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios. The pilot episode is co-written by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, who are co-creators for the series. Mundy serves as showrunner. The first two episodes are directed by James Hawes, with Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov also tapped to direct. The series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, James Gunn, Peter Safran, King, Ron Schmidt, and Hawes. Based on the DC comic characters from Green Lantern.
The series stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
The series follows new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.