It may have been ten years since Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern landed with a thud, going down in the history books as one of the biggest box office bombs in history and a reviled comic book adaptation with very few redeeming qualities, but it’ll cast a looming shadow over the upcoming HBO Max series regardless.
Part of that is down to the fact star Ryan Reynolds still hasn’t stopped making fun of the movie, recently describing it as a crease in the anus of the universe, and most casual audiences will think of the dismal 2011 Green Lantern when they hear the character’s name, presenting an instant obstacle for the show being developed by Arrowverse co-creators Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim to overcome.
It’s not really fair, but that’s how the business works when you’re instantly tainted by reputation. HBO Max’s Green Lantern is setting out a completely different stall, though, focusing on multiple members of the Green Lantern Corps as the narrative unfolds across several different timelines before tying together into one time and space-hopping arc.
Finn Wittrock will play Guy Gardner, and in a new interview the American Horror Story alum explained why the episodic Green Lantern is going to be a completely different beast to the maligned blockbuster.
“People will be really, really pleasantly surprised. It is really cool how sprawling a storyline it is. It’s pretty epic. It spans time and space and has something for everyone. It’s not your average superhero story. [The movie] definitely was something that was in my head. In some ways, it’s almost better. I think it offers a chance to reinvent the whole thing and you’re not going to have. I mean, no offense to the movie. It is what it is, but you’re not going to have people who are dying for the creation of that movie. The show can be its own new interpretation.”
Distancing itself as far away from the ill-fated Reynolds vehicle was always going to be a priority for the all-new Green Lantern, and with the creators having more than proven their chops when it comes to creating a small screen superhero universe, fans have every reason to believe that the project will finally banish the infamous feature film from the collective consciousness.
