‘Green Lantern’ Should Become The DCEU Superhero Version Of ‘Star Wars’

With news today that long-gestating Warner Bros. Discovery Green Lantern HBO Max series is being completely revamped with a new intended lead character and the loss of showrunner and lead actors, this is a great time to revisit an important point about the DCEU’s future on the big-screen: the Green Lantern [Corps] could and should become a sprawling sci-fi space opera equivalent to DC’s own version of Star Wars.

The departure of showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith and cast members Finn Wittrock and Jeremy Irvine is due to a decision at the studio to reverse course on plans for the Green Lantern streaming series, including a different lead character and a much smaller budget. Intended to span many decades and generations of Green Lanterns, the show would have introduced a large supporting cast of alien characters but would have specifically avoided portraying one key Green Lantern character from the comics — John Stewart, among the most popular and well-known in all of series lore.

Now, however, John Stewart is the intended main character for the HBO Max show, according to Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter. Greg Berlanti’s production company — responsible for launching the highly successful Arrowverse collection of DC superhero shows at The CW — will remain attached.

But I think it’s time to give Berlanti a shot at the big screen for his DC plans, as someone who has proven an ability to develop elaborate, complex storytelling within a growing shared universe that is at once able to appeal strongly to the fanbase as well as expand the appeal to a large mainstream audience. Green Lantern is the perfect vehicle for Berlanti’s company to jump from TV/streaming to the big-screen DCEU, with a huge cast of characters and deep source material to mine for multiple trilogies with overarching narratives.

Think about the Star Wars movies, particularly the prequel trilogy and its greatest entry Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Remember the epic scale of planets, cities, space battles, ensemble cast of alien characters and robots. Think about the double-crosses, the nuanced plans and plots and subplots, the character relationships and foreshadowing of twists and turns. The Jedi and Sith are essentially superheroes and supervillains, with super-powers that vary in type and strength from one character to another, who use amazing technologies and engage in a variety of forms of battle.

Now think of transferring those best elements and super-scale of the space opera onto a DC superhero film saga like Green Lantern Corps.

Consider the idea of a young Earth-based man like John Stewart who one day learns he has a greater destiny among the stars, when a veteran space soldier with superpowers — Hal Jordan — returns to Earth after years fighting a secret war across the universe to recruit Stewart to join him, to train as a Green Lantern, and to eventually replace Hal Jordan as leaders of the Green Lanterns in their quest to protect the universe and save existence from evil forces.

Imagine for example the phenomenal performer Stephan James or John Boyega in the role of John Stewart, a military man with tremendous moral fortitude and courage, who has already dedicated his life to fighting the good fight and protecting humanity. Then imagine Tom Cruise or Bradley Cooper as Hal Jordan, the grizzled space veteran returned to Earth after too many years in the trenches (so to speak) and desperate to find a new champion to stand by his side and take over command of the Green Lantern Corps. Imagine loose adaptions of the very best Green Lantern comic book stories (including what I’ve long argued are the absolute best all-time Lantern tales — and all-around some of the greatest comic book stories — by Geoff Johns).

Imagine the big-budget spectacle and power of each Green Lantern Corps film within a larger trilogy akin to the way Star Wars is a series of grand trilogies. Imagine if Steven Spielberg could be tempted to direct the first film (he’s long insisted he’d never make a Star Wars movie because those are George Lucas’ beloved IP, but maybe he’d like the chance to sink his teeth into his own version of a space opera like this), along with Jeymes Samuel aka The Bullitts, Ava DuVernay, Antoine Fuqua, Chloé Zhao, and F. Gary Gray as the full slate of directors across two trilogies.

This is the stuff of cinematic legend, the sort of approach that could spawn one of the biggest and longest-running superhero franchises in cinema history, if it’s done right. And it’s a far superior approach than insisting on a budget-slashed streaming series on a service that’s been increasingly hamstrung by cuts and write-downs and completely changed studio planning to reverse course from building a massive major streamer. As long as WBD leadership is unenthusiastic about bigger spending and planning for HBO Max’s future (and any PR talking points aside, that’s frankly what WBD has signaled time and again), a Green Lantern series intended for the streamer will continue to linger and slow-roll its way toward a less ambitious vision.

But that’s not the fault of the creators involved, who will find themselves inevitably hampered by limitations imposed on their artistic desires, and so there is a much better option available for them and for the Green Lantern IP itself if incoming DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran take the bold initiative to ask Berlanti to redevelop his project as a massive multi-trilogy-spanning film franchise with Star Wars as a major source of spiritual inspiration.

When Green Lantern was announced as a longform series for HBO Max, I was enthusiastic because I love longform storytelling, I feel Berlanti had an eye toward making the series as large-scale and mythic as possible, and I was hopeful that all signs pointed to a big-budget commitment based on the leadership of former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, whose enthusiasm for making HBO Max a top-tier streamer seemed destined to deliver a wonderful high-quality stable of major IP films and series.

Now, however, it’s become quite clear WBD isn’t going to put top dollar investment into IP like Green Lantern as a streaming series, and as much as I love the Arrowverse I feel Green Lantern needs far bigger budgetary commitment and sweeping creative freedom to achieve its fullest potential, something simply not possible anymore through a lower-budget HBO Max show under current WBD leadership demands.

In that case, I would much rather see — and hope fans and audiences take up the chorus to ask for — a Green Lantern project moved to the big screen, attempting to fully deliver the promise of the premise of the characters and franchise, going all-in on a wish-list of potential talent to create and star in the films. This is also the sort of move that would signal new leadership and new plans for the DCEU are serious about exploring the absolute greatest potential for all of their IP, that they will “go big or go home.”

So WBD, DC Studios, if you’re listening: Green Lantern Corps is your Star Wars. Any Green Lantern will tell you to be fearless, accept no limits to your imagination, and have the will to make it happen.