Way before Lanterns hit screens, there was another Green Lantern show in the works at HBO Max titled Emerald Knights. Now, the creator of the scrapped series has shared concept art, including a new look at the show's Guy Gardner.
Co-creator of the 2012 DC show Arrow, Marc Guggenheim, shared multiple concept pieces on his Substack. The first shows a team of Green Lanterns, including Guy Gardner, Kilowog, Sinestro, and more, fighting against an alien species in space. Guggenheim added that this was the concept for the first episode's opening sequence. The second image shows the design for a new female Lantern, whose appearance is based on actor and singer Janelle Monáe.
The third image gives us a closer look at Guy Gardner in his Green Lantern suit, who was set to be played by American Horror Story star Finn Wittrock. "We were going to alter it slightly to reflect his Justice League International look," added Guggenheim.
The show was set to follow a number of Green Lanterns across different timelines in 1941 and 1984. The '40s timeline would have followed Alan Scott, aka the Golden Age Green Lantern, operating as an FBI agent whilst keeping his sexuality a secret. Jeremy Irvine was cast as Scott. The '80s was focused on Guy and half-alien, half-human Lantern Bree Jarta. While Wittrock was cast as Guy, the team never found Bree's actor.
Emerald Knight was picked up for 10 episodes by HBO in 2020 before being trimmed to 8, and tapped Seth Grahame-Smith as showrunner, with Guggenheim on board as the writer. However, Grahame-Smith left the project in late 2022, and the show saw a rehaul. Then, James Gunn and Peter Safran were hired as DC Studios' co-CEOs, and in 2024, HBO moved forward with the new Green Lantern series, Lanterns.
Though Emerald Knights would have been much more space-set and cosmic than the newly released True Detective-style show, the two do share similarities. Not only was Emerald Knights supposed to take place over two timelines, like Lanterns, and include Sinestro, but Guggenheim reveals that Manhunters were also the "primary villains." It looks like Lanterns will follow the scrapped show's footsteps in the future too, as showrunner Chris Mundy has teased Kilowog's involvement in a potential Lanterns season 2.
Lanterns season 1 is streaming in full on HBO Max. For more, check out our Lanterns review and our Lanterns ending explained, and keep up with upcoming DC movies and shows on the way.
