Sadly, it looks like we won’t be getting a gay Green Lantern series any time soon.
As a part of DC’s continuous fluctuations, it was announced today that HBO Max’s Green Lantern series will switch gears and no longer be about the first Green Lantern, Alan Scott and Guy Gardner, and will instead be about John Stewart, one of DC’s first Black superheroes.
Previously, the series, headed by Greg Berlanti (Love, Simon), was to focus on a large group of Lanterns, including Gardner, and Scott, who is gay. Finn Wittrock had been cast as Gardner and Jeremy Irvine had been cast as Scott.
When the show was originally made, the character of Stewart was said to be off the table for producers of the show, but with former DCEU Head Walter Hamada’s exit from the company, the decision has been made to start over on the show, instead focusing on Stewart, who first appeared in the comics in the 1970s and was modeled after the great actor Sidney Poitier.
As part of the creative change, writer and showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith has also left the project after he completed scripts for a full season of eight episodes. Berlanti and his Berlanti Productions still remain attached.
Both Wittrock and Irvine are no longer signed onto the project, which was set to begin shooting last year before changes in HBO, Warner Bros, and DC. Now, the project is said to be back to early development and will be produced more slowly.
Berlanti Productions are indicating that they still hope to work with Wittrock and Irvine when the show is actually made.
This Green Lantern show has been in development at HBO Max for several years. It was originally announced in 2019, and in 2020, it was announced that the show would focus on Gardner and Scott.
When the Warner Bros./Discovery Merger happened earlier this year, the project’s status was up in the air, as many shows in development, including Kevin Smith’s Strange Adventures show, were canceled.
However, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the show was still on track, it was just taking time to be made because it is an effects-heavy show and “the priciest series Berlanti Productions has ever mounted.”
While it doesn’t seem especially likely, hopefully, the new show will be able to find a place for Scott.
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