HBO’s Green Lantern Corps: Series Ordered, Plot Details Emerge

HBO is working with Greg Berlanti to head up a new television series based on the DC Comics character Green Lantern.

By Liana Keane | Published 4 years ago

HBO is working with Greg Berlanti to head up a new television series based on the DC Comics character Green Lantern. Berlanti co-wrote and co-produced the critically maligned Green Lantern movie, which starred a pre-Deadpool Ryan Reynolds. Since then he’s been the mind behind DC’s many superhero-based television series like Arrow and Supergirl. The new HBO series will be called Green Lantern Corps.

The plan is to debut the new Green Lantern Corps series on the network’s streaming service, HBO Max, probably as part of a plan to pump up their subscriber numbers in much the same way Disney Plus did with The Mandalorian.

The Plot Of HBO’s Green Lantern Corps

This time instead of focusing on one Green Lantern, Warner Bros. is developing a series about the Green Lantern Corps. As you likely know if you’ve read the comics or even if you watched the terrible Ryan Reynolds movie, Green Lantern isn’t just one guy. It’s a whole intergalactic organization of protectors with power rings.

So the new show, rather than focusing on just the Green Lantern assigned to Earth, will explore the entire organization with multiple Green Lantern’s probably as a team. Think Guardians of the Galaxy but where everyone has a power ring.

The HBO’s Green Lantern Corps would, according to the networks’ head of original content Sarah Aubrey, be about two different Green Lanterns. Here’s how she explains it…

“Greg [Berlanti] said that I can share a few little tidbits about Green Lantern. We’re in the early stages of talking to him about it, but he did say that the series, so far, will span several decades and focus on the origin story of two major Green Lanterns from Earth, while going into the story in space and Green Lantern favorite character Sinestro.“

– -Sarah Aubrey on HBO’s Green Lantern show

In addition to this, Variety has reported that the series will actually feature a number of notable Green Lanterns. Among the roster of heroes are names that will be familiar to any DC fan: Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, and Alan Scott. Scott is a very notable entry as he is the original Green Lantern and his powers were originally derived from a magic ability rather than a science-fiction one. Scott is also a gay man, so it will be interesting to see how that element ties in with his character.

You can also expect to see fan-favorite Green Lantern Kilowog show up in the HBO Max series. The show has received a 10 episode order from HBO and each episode will be an hour long. The series will be executive produced and co-written by Seth Grahame-Smith and Marc Guggenheim. Grahame-Smith will be serving as the showrunner.

Casting Carol Ferris

Carol Ferris is traditionally Hal Jordan’s love interest. She was played by Blake Lively in the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie.

For Green Lantern Corps, word is that HBO is considering hiring Linda Cardellini as Carol Ferris. Cardellini is 45-years-old which basically confirms that they’re going for an older, more mature version of Hal Jordan. Makes sense if he’s leading the Green Lantern Corps.

Cardellini has a lot of experience playing the standard superhero love interest. She’s Hawkeye’s wife in the Avengers movies.

Leading The Green Lantern Corps

Recent rumors from Bounding Into Comics suggest that HBO is considering James Marsden as Hal Jordan, leader of the Green Lantern Corps. Marsden has played a superhero leader before as Cyclops the leader of the X-Men in the first round of X-Men movies. Hopefully they’ll treat him better as Hal Jordan than the X-Men movies did as Scott Summers. In the X-Men movies, Marsden’s character routinely got short changed.

As the leader of this new Green Lantern Corps word is HBO tried to get Robert Downey Jr.. We’ve heard rumblings for awhile now that the execs running the DC Comics movie universe were working to steal Robert Downey Jr. away from Marvel, now that his time as Iron Man is basically done. Til now we haven’t heard which superhero movie they want him to play, but these sources say they wanted him for Hal Jordan.

Hal Jordan is the same character Ryan Reynolds played in his Green Lantern, and he is without question the most famous character to become the Green Lantern in DC Comics lore. Apparently talks were attempted between RDJ and Warner Bros (the company behind the DC universe). Meanwhile talks between RDJ and Marvel about a possible Tony Stark comeback have apparently stalled.

Putting A Ring On Michelle Rodriguez

As one of the Green Lanterns, the latest is that HBO wants Fast & Furious star Michelle Rodriguez. She’d play Jessica Cruz, a member of the Lantern Corps who was introduced in the comics in 2014.

Casting John Stewart

One of the most famous Green Lanterns from the comics is John Stewart. The character has recently been teased on the TV show Arrow, but we’ve never really seen him in live action form before. Word is that HBO’s Green Lantern Corps may want to bring him in, possibly as one of the two Green Lanterns they’re focusing on. To play him, they’re targeting Michael B. Jordan.

Jordan most famously played the villain of Black Panther, but he has also played a superhero before. In the all but forgotten, mostly terrible, 2015 Fantastic Four movie he played the Human Torch.

Also in the running to play Stewart is Jovan Adepo. You last saw him in HBO’s Watchmen as Hooded Justice.

It’s also worth noting that Tyrese Gibson has been lobbying to become the first John Stewart for years.

I suspect he has probably aged out of the part for Green Lantern Corps, but that won’t stop him from trying to get it. Given the box office clout of the Fast & Furious franchise, it’s likely HBO will at least consider him, along with their other first choices like Michael B. Jordan.

Green Lantern In Real Life

When a Green Lantern dies, the ring goes searching for a new person to wear it. And as seen in the movie we’d all like to forget, it pulls that new person through the sky in a bright green fireball. And that’s exactly what just happened over Australia. Here’s the video evidence…

Congratulations to the new Green Lantern, whoever you are. In brightest day, in blackest night, make sure no evil escapes your sight.

Here’s what it looked like the last time a ring chose a new master…

That Other Green Lantern Project

Of course the last time someone tried to bring Green Lantern to life it was a movie starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. The movie was an infamous failure, one which luckily didn’t stop Ryan Reynolds from becoming the superhero he was born to play: Deadpool.

That said, Reynolds has always regretted the decision to do Green Lantern and until recently there seemed to be no way to fix that decision. But with the release of Justice League’s Snyder Cut, Ryan decided the time was right. Ryan Reynolds has just released Green Lantern: The Reynolds Cut. Watch it below…

Tom Cruise was exactly what this movie needed.