For a long time, the Green Lantern IP was kept on the sidelines after the debacle of the 2011 movie, which was originally meant to be the first entry in Warner Bros’ planned DC film universe. Moreover, Greg Berlanti, who penned the Ryan Reynolds-led movie, was commissioned to develop the sequel alongside Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim.
Although the sequel never came to fruition following Green Lantern‘s critical and commercial performance, it did kickstart Berlanti’s ascent on the DC universe in the small screen.
Green Lantern contributed to Greg Berlanti’s ascent as the Arrowverse boss
Part of the reason behind Green Lantern‘s failure was the studio meddling, which diluted Greg Berlanti‘s final vision for the movie. On the bright side, even though the situation was heartbreaking for Berlanti, unlike the Green Lantern IP, which was put on ice as a result, the producer’s DC career saw an exponential rise with Arrow.
He recalled (via THR):
The movie did introduce me more to the folks at DC, which led to Arrow. So while it was heartbreaking on the film side, it ultimately led to wonderful things on the television side.
Following the success of Arrow, the producer went on to oversee the production for the entire Arrowverse and other DC projects, including Doom Patrol and Titans.
Greg Berlanti’s scrapped Green Lantern series could’ve redeemed his DC beginning
Ironically, Berlanti, whose DC debut led to the ostracization of the IP on the big screen, was originally hired to breathe new life into Green Lantern with the planned Max series. But following the regime change, the Berlanti-led Lantern show was eventually scrapped, which, per Arrowverse producer Marc Guggenheim, would have been awesome and more in line with a movie than a TV show (via The Showrunner Whisperer).
Oh, and you should see those costumes, by the way, not a single bit of CG in any of them! [They] looked amazing. The production art, it would blow you away, honestly, stuff that looked incredible, but looked like a movie. We had an amazing writing staff; we’d written all eight scripts of the first season…
He further stressed that the adaptation would’ve been true to the Green Lantern mythology, had their vision been realized. While it’s a shame that the Arrowverse boss never got his Green Lantern redemption, like most of us, the showrunner is excited for the new chapter of DC, which will introduce the Lanterns in a True Detective-inspired HBO thriller.
Green Lantern is available to stream on Max.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
