The HBO Max “Green Lantern” series is being retooled to focus on a different lead character, and as a result has lost its showrunner.
DC and HBO Max decided to take the TV series adaptation of the fan-favorite comic in a different direction, focusing on John Stewart – a Black Green Lantern – instead of the other Green Lanterns that were the focus of the project initially. As a result, showrunner and writer Seth Grahame-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) has decided not to stick with the project, sources confirm to TheWrap.
We’re told the decision to change the focus of the “Green Lantern” series predates the news that James Gunn and Peter Safran will be spearheading the DC Universe going forward.
Greg Berlanti’s Berlanti Productions remains attached to the project via its overall deal with Warner Bros. Television.
Grahame-Smith was working on the 10-episode first season of the series with a focus on a variety of Green Lanterns simultaneously, including Alan Scott, Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz. Finn Wittrock and Jeremy Irvine were cast as Gardner and Scott, respectively, but it’s unclear if they remain attached to the new iteration of the project.
The project was first greenlit in 2020 and marked DC’s attempt to reboot the Green Lantern character following the ill-fated Ryan Reynolds feature film that was released in 2011.
Zack Snyder introduced a version of Green Lantern at the end of his “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” director’s cut that was released on HBO Max in 2021, played by Wayne T. Carr, courtesy of new footage that was shot as part of the additional photography when “The Snyder Cut” was greenlit.
Grahame-Smith is currently writing the sequel “Now You See Me 3.”
THR first reported the news.
