Any superhero TV show aiming to emulate the quality of a blockbuster movie is going to come under some intense scrutiny, but the stakes are arguably even higher for HBO Max’s Green Lantern, which is looking to finally wipe the infamous Ryan Reynolds box office bomb from our collective memories and establish the Corps as a force to be reckoned with after they’ve spent the better part of a decade being the butt of many jokes.
Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim both jumped ship from the Arrowverse to spearhead the project, and the duo have already more than proven their capabilities when it comes to creating and developing an immersive and expansive shared universe on the small screen. Of course, the full lineup of Lanterns was revealed a few weeks back, but a new report claims that not only have the villains been settled on as well, but the show will adopt a more mature tone.
As per The Direct, Green Lantern will be slapped with a TV-MA rating due to profanity and violence, while the Dominators are set to be positioned as major threats. Furthermore, newly-created character Bree Jarta and established Lantern Guy Gardner are said to be partnered up in one subplot taking place in 1984, which sees them battling against the technologically advanced alien species.
If Green Lantern ends up sticking with the TV-MA rating, it would be just the second project in the DCEU’s history that wasn’t PG-13 after Birds of Prey, but at least the streaming exclusive doesn’t have to worry about box office returns. HBO’s Watchmen already showed how a mature and complex approach to a comic book story could result in phenomenal television, and it looks like Berlanti might be drawing his inspirations from last year’s acclaimed adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel to craft his take on the property.
