Green Lantern’s brightest day is still yet to come.
Executive producer Greg Berlanti’s upcoming “Green Lantern” HBO Max series, which has long been in development, has hit another speed bump by losing its co-writer and showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith, Variety has confirmed. The show is also being redeveloped to shift focus from Green Lantern characters Guy Gardner and Alan Scott to John Stewart, one of the first major Black DC Comics characters. Finn Wittrock and Jeremy Irvine were cast in 2021 as Gardner and Scott, but they are no longer signed onto the show.
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Before exiting, Grahame-Smith had finished the scripts for a full, eight-episode season. Berlanti Productions, which has an overall deal with Warner Bros. Television, is still signed onto the show.
“Green Lantern” was first in development in 2019, then greenlit by HBO Max in 2020 with the addition of Grahame-Smith and co-writer and executive producer Marc Guggenheim. It was originally envisioned to follow the space adventures of multiple Green Lanterns like Gardner and Scott, who was DC Comics’ first Lantern and one of its first openly gay characters, plus Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, Sinestro, Kilowog and other brand new characters. “Green Lantern” will now get an entirely new logline as it moves back into early development.
Grahame-Smith’s departure comes in the wake of the Warner Bros.-Discovery merger and other shake-ups at Warner Bros. TV and DC Films, including the recent exit of executive Walter Hamada. The “Green Lantern” news predates Tuesday’s bombshell that James Gunn and Peter Safran will now lead DC Studios’ film, TV and animation departments. Their posts don’t begin until Nov. 1.
Hollywood Reporter was first to report the news.
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