Marc Guggenheim might’ve been one of the main architects of The CW’s Arrowverse for the past eight years, but he’s now moving on to oversee HBO Max’s incoming Green Lantern TV series. The show is set to be a huge, big budget venture that will feature a range of heroes from the titular Green Lantern Corps. Some fans might be disappointed that we’re not getting a new movie instead, but Guggenheim has promised that the series will look just as good as a film with all the storytelling benefits of a TV show, too.
While taking part in Comic-Con International’s one day mini-conference, the former Arrow EP – who will be serving as Green Lantern‘s co-head writer alongside Seth Grahame-Smith – explained that the series will be somewhat episodic in nature, due to his belief that this is more beneficial to a TV season structure.
“I happen to believe — and this is not a universally held opinion — that you can’t do a ten-hour show or an eight-episode show, like an 8-hour movie. I don’t think that works. When I see it done, there’s always some flabby episodes in the middle. I think you have to approach it like a TV series and approach each episode like its own entity. Even though it’s streaming, even though hopefully people will binge it, you’ve got to make each episode a satisfying meal.”
At the same time, though, it will have “the production ambitions” of a movie. In Guggenheim’s words, it’ll be written like a TV show but it’ll end up looking like it’s been made for the big screen.
“You’ve got to look at it with a different tempo than you would have in a two-hour movie. That being said, certainly the show for HBO Max that we’re all working on, we are approaching it with the production ambitions of a movie. So we’re writing it like a TV show but we’re hoping to produce it like a film.”
These comments are certainly exciting, as this combination of episodic storytelling and high production values is probably the best approach to take when tackling this corner of the DC universe. Obviously, you need a lot of money to create the heavy special effects necessary to bring the cosmic Lanterns, with their energy constructions, to life. Likewise, though, we all know how well trying to crowbar the GL mythos into a single narrative worked for the 2011 Ryan Reynolds movie, so using an episodic structure is a smart move.
Remember, the Green Lantern TV series will focus on the likes of Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz and Alan Scott – who will be portrayed as openly gay. Look for it on HBO Max sometime next year.