Posted in: HBO, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: dc studios, dcu, green lantern, greg berlanti, hbo max, james gunn, peter safran

Does Greg Berlanti/WBTVG Deal Include Green Lantern, Other DCU Series?

Does Greg Berlanti's newly-announced exclusive deal with the Warner Bros. Television Group include Green Lantern and other DCU projects?

Published Tue, 10 Jan 2023 18:25:14 -0600

by Ray Flook

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See? This is what happens when you give our brains a chance to speculate. On Monday, the news hit that Greg Berlanti & Berlanti Productions had locked in a four-year exclusive deal with Warner Bros. Television Group that will keep the production company producing television content exclusively for the Warner Bros. Discovery fam through 2027. Now, when we read that, our first thought was, "Well, that's a good sign for the Green Lantern series." In case you forgot (and we have the full timeline below), the end of October saw a major shift in the show's focus (now on John Stewart and, possibly, the Green Lantern Corps) as well as on the creative front. At the time, we wondered if the project would stay with Berlanti considering the changes on the creative side, but then the news of the deal came out, so why wouldn't everything be fine? Well, maybe it's in the little details…

Okay, first off? This is an exercise in piecing together speculation puzzle pieces based on source reporting from two major media news sites: The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood. In the Deadline Hollywood article, Berlanti's future production projects that were listed included HBO Max's Dead Boy Detectives, The CW's Gotham Knights, NBC's Found, and HBO Max's More & The Girls on the Bus. No mention of Green Lantern… but again, DH never claimed that it was an exhaustive list of his future projects. But then we have this from The Hollywood Reporter,

"Sources close to the showrunner note that Berlanti is increasingly focused on delivering fare like HBO Max's 'The Flight Attendant' — which broke through with a dozen Emmy nominations — and Netflix's 'You,' which continues to rack up big viewing figures at the streamer after failing to find an audience on Lifetime. Sources also note that while Berlanti helped launch the wave of comic book TV series with DC hits, including 'Arrow' and 'Superman & Lois,' DC Comics fare will not be the focal point of his new deal with Warners." Berlanti, Warners, and DC all declined to comment on THR's reporting before it went live.

August 2022: HBO & HBO Max CCO Casey Bloys sends out an email that lays out the changes that will be taking place on the executive levels moving forward. While describing HBO Max Head of Original Content Sarah Aubrey, Bloys says they will be working with Joey Chavez, EVP Programming, to build up "tentpole IP series such as 'Peacemaker,' 'Dune,' 'The Penguin,' and 'Green Lantern.'" Those series would include James Gunn's John Cena-starring Peacemaker; the upcoming "Dune" prequel series, Dune: The Sisterhood; Matt Reeves' Colin Farrell-starring "The Batman" spinoff, The Penguin; and Greg Berlanti's Finn Wittrock-starring Green Lantern. You can check out Bloys's email in full here).

October 2022: Though Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max remain committed to Greg Berlanti and his Warner Bros. TV-based Berlanti Productions' take on a Green Lantern series, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the series was going through a ground-up refocusing that saw writer & showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith departing the project after having completed scripts for a full, 8-episode season (with Grahame-Smith reportedly choosing to depart after leadership changes at the multimedia company). The series will now focus on John Stewart and not on Guy Gardner (Finn Wittrock), Alan Scott (Jeremy Irvine), or the ensemble of Green Lanter Corps characters as originally envisioned. The decision was said not to be connected with the recent news that Gunn and Safran were set to lead film, TV, and animation at DC Studios.

November 2022: In an interview, Aubrey also stressed how Warner Bros. Discovery IPs were as an essential part of the streamer's future, having this to say about Green Lantern: "We remain very excited by the opportunity to make a big four-quadrant space opera with Greg [Berlanti] and Sarah [ Schechter] for HBO Max."

December 2022: In a tweet confirming that Superman was "a huge priority, if not the biggest priority" in his and Safran's DCU plans (this was before the Gunn-penned Superman movie was announced), Gunn also said that Green Lantern was "important" as the DCU moves forward. Later that month, Gunn would label a report that the Green Lantern series had been scrapped with John Stewart's Green Lantern being brought over to the film side as "fake."

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