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Looks Like HBO Max's Gay Green Lantern Series Is Dead on Arrival
Another casualty of the Warner Bros leadership shift.
That scrapped Batgirl film isn't the only queer content HBO Max is dumping.
Back in 2019, out television producer Greg Berlanti (The Flash, Love, Simon) announced two productions he was working on for Warner Bros: a fresh adaption of DC comic book hero Green Lantern and an original anthology series titled Strange Adventures.
"Both of these original DC properties we’ll be creating for HBO Max will be unlike anything seen on television," Berlanti said at the time. "An anthology series of cautionary tales set in a world where superpowers exist, and, in what promises to be our biggest DC show ever made, we will be going to space with a Green Lantern television series, but I can’t reveal any more about that just yet."
After three years of production, script-writing, and even casting, Warner Bros and HBO Max have changed the fates of both projects.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Strange Adventures has been scrapped completely and Green Lantern "will now focus on John Stewart, one of DC’s first Black superheroes. The series, from exec producer Greg Berlanti, was to originally have revolved around Guy Gardner and Alan Scott and had already cast Finn Wittrock (Ratched) and Jeremy Irvine (Treadstone) as the respective Green Lanterns."
If you're not aware, Alan Scott is the first Green Lantern in the comics and identifies as gay. THR reports that while the scripts for all eight episodes were completed, writer and showrunner Seth Grahme-Smith has departed the project with the news of the change of direction. Neither Wittrock nor Irvine are still signed on to Green Lantern.
Going by that news, we likely won't be getting our queer Green Lantern any time soon.
This news comes with the regime shift of the Warner Bros and HBO Max companies, and new leadership cutting studio costs any way they can to focus on safer blockbusters. Earlier this year, it was announced they would be completely shelving their highly anticipated Batgirl film, which was completely finished and set to center an afro-Latina iteration of the character and her transgender bestie.
"It seems that Warner Bros. crunched the numbers and found that even though the film was essentially completed, the additional $30 to $50 million that would be required for its global rollout was just too high a price," PRIDE reported at the time. "Instead, the company is opting to simply shelve the film (along with a Scoob! sequel) and take the tax write-off."
RELATED | Trans-Inclusive Batgirl Movie Has Been Canceled Despite Being Completed
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
