DC characters have a very different path to the screen. While their largest competitor wrings box-office hits out of D-listers, DC struggles to succeed with anyone aside from a couple of big names. Anyone who isn’t Batman can barely see the inside of a theater. Heroes like Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Aquaman have critical and commercial disasters to their names. Green Lantern got a crack at the spotlight, but that early attempt killed any excitement for the character for almost fifteen years. Finally, Lanterns could bring this cast back in the right way.
Hopes are high for the new DCU. James Gunn had his name on the only element of the old DCEU that seemed to work, so letting him take the helm for the franchise seemed like common sense. He’ll direct the new Superman and build out the cinematic universe from there. The DCEU had its Justice League and two takes on its Suicide Squad, but it didn’t get to play with a lot of the franchise’s major figures. That’s a blessing, because the DCU could deliver something more impressive with less beloved characters.
Lanterns will be the Green Lantern’s DCU debut
Multiple Green Lanterns have suffered repeated failed attempts to attain on-screen success. Lanterns will be an HBO Max original that seeks to expand the nascent DCU by approaching one of its strangest elements. The concept received a series order in late June, but it won’t air until sometime next year. John Diggle of the CW’s Arrow almost became that universe’s primary Green Lantern, but the studio wasn’t interested in that upgrade. Producer and screenwriter Marc Guggenheim put out concept art of Diggle’s costume, bemoaning the fact that it would never see daylight. Green Lantern was also supposed to appear in Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of Justice League. Even his supposedly sacrosanct final cut privilege didn’t allow him to ignore Warner Bros.’s request to use Martian Manhunter instead. Even Lanterns went through a couple of previous phases before reaching its current point. Maybe all that lab work in the background strengthened the pitch, because it sounds like a solid Green Lantern show at the moment.
Lanterns will be a grounded sci-fi cop show
The logline for Lanterns pitches the show as, essentially, a sci-fi take on Seven. John Stewart joins the Green Lantern Corps as a new recruit, fresh from Earth. He’s partnered with longtime Lantern Hal Jordan to investigate a gruesome murder on their home planet. A brutal killing in the American heartland doesn’t sound like the first thing one might picture when they imagine a Green Lantern TV show. However, it is a True Detective-inspired reach into the genre that best fits the source material. The Green Lanterns are space cops. They patrol the far reaches of the galaxy. The Guardians are their higher-ups, the rings are their service weapons, and “Green Lantern’s light” is their “protect and serve.” Subsequently, a Green Lantern solo project should fit into a genre that handles that kind of story well.
Lanterns may have found the perfect way to handle Green Lantern
At the risk of opening old wounds, there were a lot of problems in Green Lantern. The 2011 film set out to be the starting point of a new DC series, but its poor quality killed that plan without a second chance. One of the many irritating things about that attempt is that it played out like Top Gun with an awful CGI suit. The elements of the film that did touch on the sprawling science fiction genre were trapped within a brief training sequence. It felt like a generic superhero movie. If it had done the usual trappings with an ounce of skill or charm, it might have been a serviceable entry in the superhero movement in 2011. Today, even a good version of that film would fall on deaf ears. People are desperate for something new, and a superhero cop show might be the perfect direction.
Green Lantern isn’t a minor character in the DC Comics universe, but he is one of the icons that newcomers would rather mock than idolize. That leaves two ideal opportunities for the character’s first major showcase in this new venue. They could lean into that idea, as they partially did in the latest Aquaman sequel. A Green Lantern show could be sweeping and silly, pitting the various color-wielding superheroes against each other in the brightest space war of all time. James Gunn and his team seem to be taking the other approach. As the DCU’s new head often does, this project will give the world an insight into what people like about Green Lantern. Space cops get to enjoy a new space cop show. It could have been The Wire or NYPD Blue, but they went with True Detective. Fans should get hyped to see what a grounded cop show with glowing rings and imagination powers could look like. It’s this kind of creativity and reverence for source material that could save the DCU.
Leave a Reply