Acclaimed and cult filmmaker Kevin Smith believes the Green Lantern series at HBO Max has been canceled. Ever since the 2011 Green Lantern film bombed with critics and audiences at the box office, Warner Bros. has struggled to find out what to do with the emerald superhero. In 2014 when Warner Bros. first announced their slate of DC films that would make up their shared cinematic universe, they announced Green Lantern Corps as a movie with a July 24, 2020 release date set that the film never made.
In 2020, HBO Max officially gave the green light to a Green Lantern series from Marc Guggenheim and Seth Grahame-Smith. The series was set to include various Green Lanterns and had cast Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story) as Guy Gardner and Jeremy Irvine (Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again) as Alan Scott. The series had secured a director and was recently teased by Marc Guggenheim in June 2022 saying they were working on the Green Lantern season finale already. The series was set to be a major push for HBO Max in bringing a high-profile series with a big budget to the streaming service to compete with projects like Disney+ and Netflix.
During an appearance on Hollywood Babble-On, Smith alongside co-host Ralph Garman spoke about the recent news surrounding various cancelations of DC projects. Smith said that he has not heard anything about the Green Lantern series and said he would not be surprised if it is canceled as he reveals there were a lot of DC properties that were a victim of the merger. Smith specifically said he has not heard anything for a fact about the fate of the Green Lantern so at this time it is only speculation. Smith said:
"I don't know this for a fact but I haven't heard anything about the Green Lantern series they were supposedly doing. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a casualty too."
The new regime at Warner Bros. Discovery has led to massive shifts in terms of the DC brand. Multiple CW series like Batwoman, Legends of Tomorrow, and Naomi have been canceled. Warner Bros. also canceled DC films like Wonder Twins as well as Batgirl, which had completed filming and was in the middle of post-production. The cancelations are likely to continue as rumors have circulated about the cancelation of the Supergirl movie and fans wondering what the future holds for projects like Zatanna and Blue Beetle.
Warner Bros. Discovery has not officially made any statement regarding the fate of the Green Lantern series, yet the outlook is bleak. Warner Bros. Discovery has started making major rollbacks to HBO Max's original scripted programming, and if the plan for DC is big theatrical films it does not seem that Green Lantern has a future as a television show at HBO Max. Many will be waiting to see but there is a chance Green Lantern could join the ranks of many superhero series that were just never meant to be.
Source: Kevin Smith