The ‘Green Lantern’ Corps was briefly set to be one of the most ambitious superhero projects by HBO Max. Long before James Gunn and Peter Safran took the reins of DC Studios, Greg Berlanti’s ‘Green Lantern’ series promised a sweeping, character-rich exploration of DC’s cosmic mythology.
Rather, the project was scrapped, leaving cast members, creatives, and fans to ponder over what could have been. Today, with the new DCU’s ‘Lanterns’ on the verge of its 2026 release, one of the actors who was most attached to the cancelled series has been very open about how much the loss hurt.
“I Was Gutted”: How DC’s Reboot Era Cost One Actor His Green Lantern Role
Jeremy Irvine, who played Alan Scott in Berlanti’s ‘Green Lantern’, recently shared his emotional experience about the cancellation of the series. In an interview with The Direct, Irvine did not soften the experience. He explained that learning that the series was scrapped was one of the most difficult professional blows he has ever received. “I was so gutted,” Irvine admitted. “I think I slept on my floor that night when I found out that it wasn’t going to happen.”
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To him, it was not only a matter of losing a job but a story that he had truly believed in. “In this industry. I always like to say that you get one kick in the nuts every year as an actor, he stated. And that one was a hard one.” Irvine’s attachment to the project ran deeper than a standard casting gig. He had a vision of what Alan Scott could be in a contemporary DC television world. “I had some really good ideas for it,” he explained, adding that the scripts themselves were “really cool”.
Despite the setback, Irvine was still gracious. He hoped that maybe some of the things that were in the cancelled show could be reused in some form in the future. He believes that whoever ends up telling that story will be able to have an amazing time. That optimism speaks to both his professionalism and the sense that the Berlanti Green Lantern wasn’t scrapped because it lacked quality, but because DC itself was changing.
Berlanti’s Green Lantern Vision Was Lost To A New DCU Era
‘Green Lantern’ was among the crown jewels of HBO Max and was in development before DC Studios existed as a unified creative force. The show was officially picked up on a 10-episode order and was conceived as a multi-decade saga of several Earth-based Green Lanterns. The cast also featured Irvine Alan Scott and Finn Wittrock as Guy Gardner. It was intended to add Simon Baz, Jessica Cruz, Kilowog, Sinestro, and even an original character named Bree Jarta.
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During the 2020 Television Critics Association press tour, HBO Max’s Sarah Aubrey explained the series as a multi-decade saga that would narrate two massive stories about Green Lanterns working on Earth. It was a big, costly, and narratively ambitious project. This is precisely what streaming platforms were scrambling to create at the moment. However, ambition leads to trouble. The series was repeatedly delayed, creatively rearranged, and then Warner Bros. Discovery’s priorities changed.
In October 2022, the project was radically reconfigured to center on John Stewart following the departure of showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith. Soon after, the show was simply buried. Then came James Gunn and Peter Safran. As the new DC Studios was launched, Gunn clarified that DC required a clean and unified direction, one that would unite film, television, and animation under one narrative umbrella. Berlanti’s Green Lantern did not fit that vision anymore. Instead of doing any more refinement, DC decided to begin anew, and the outcome was ‘Lanterns‘.
