Green Lantern #3 variant cover by Jae Lee Image : DC Comics

HBO Max just put on a fancy ring and created some shows no one was expecting.

The company revealed at its HBO Max event on Tuesday it’s moving forward with a Green Lantern show. Yes, the popular DC Comics hero once played by Ryan Reynolds and forever on the “maybe” list of upcoming DC movies.


It’s being produced by Greg Berlanti and, as far as we know, has no bearing on Green Lantern Corps, the maybe-still-in-development movie announced at San Diego Comic-Con several years ago.


Berlanti is also working on Strange Adventures, “a DC superhero anthology...[that] will feature characters from across the DC canon.” According to an HBO Max press release, the TV show will be a “one-hour drama series [that] will explore close-ended morality tales about the intersecting lives of mortals and superhumans.” Strange Adventures is also the title of a highly-anticipated new Tom King comic, which we learned more about at the recent New York City Comic Con; it will feature Adam Strange as well as other DC notables grappling with multiple realities.

“Both of these original DC properties we’ll be creating for HBO Max will be unlike anything seen on television,” Berlanti said in a press release. “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.”

So, there’s no word on which Green Lantern this show will focus on. The main story, of course, is of Earthling Hal Jordan who comes upon a magic ring that makes him a part of an intergalactic police force sworn to protect the galaxy. But other humans have taken on the mantle—notably John Stewart—as well as all kinds of aliens from every corner of space. They could even choose to introduce one of the latest Green Lanterns from the comics. This show could go any number of ways. And potentially be very expensive.


Airing this series on HBO Max adds a new wrinkle to the live-action DC universe. On the big screen at least, that direction had been in flux for some time. However, after Aquaman, Shazam, and with the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984, the now in pre-production Batman movie as well James Gunn’s Suicide Squad, things seem to be taking a turn. Not to mention the unrelated, but sure to change things Joker as well as the massive live-action TV universe on the so-far separate DC Universe streaming service.

Green Lantern seems like something that could, if it wants to, tie into any of that, or live completely on its own. We’ll have to wait and find out—but in the meantime, which DC heroes are you hoping to see pop up on the Strange Adventures anthology show?


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