'Green Lantern' Is "Not Your Average Superhero Story", Says The Lead Finn Wittrock

Back in May it was revealed that American Horror Story mainstay Finn Wittrock had been cast as Guy Gardner in HBO Max’s live-action Green Lantern series. Written by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Seth Grahame-Smith, Green Lantern will reinvent the classic DC property through a story spanning decades and galaxies, beginning on Earth in 1941 with the very first Green Lantern, secretly gay FBI agent Alan Scott played by Jeremy Irvine, and 1984, with cocky alpha male Guy Gardner and half-alien Bree Jarta. They’ll be joined by a multitude of other Lanterns, from comic book favorites to new ones.

Guy Gardner is a hulking mass of masculinity, and, as rendered in the comics, an embodiment of 1980s hyper-patriotism. And yet, Guy is somehow one of the most beloved Green Lanterns by fans, and is likable in the comics by, most, of his peers. Other Lanterns that will appear in the show are: Jessica Cruz, Sector 2814's (Earth’s) first female Lantern; and Simon Baz, Jessica's frequent partner assigned to Earth. Sinestro and Kilowog will also appear.

In speaking with Collider, Wittrock shed some light on his upcoming superhero outing:

“It is really cool how sprawling a storyline it is," Wittrock said. "It's pretty epic. It spans time and space and has something for everyone. It's not your average superhero story." But that doesn’t mean he’s ignoring those who came before him. According to Wittrock, he’s knee-deep in Lantern research, a “student of the comic book universe”

So who is Guy Garnder you ask? That’s why I’m here! Gardner is a top member of the Green Lantern Corps, and the second one to be chosen from Earth. His willpower and his complete refusal to back down from any fight, have made him one of the greatest warriors in the universe. This has also given him a notorious reputation in the superhero community as an obnoxious a-hole. Despite the disapproval from his peers for his unrelenting offensive tendencies, he always keeps his chin up and refuses to let the opinions of others stop him from doing what he knows is the right thing.

A bit of a wild card in terms of attitude, and unwilling to listen to the strict restrictions that bind most of his fellow Lanterns, his determination, skill, and unpredictability have made him one of the most feared and respected men in the universe. He has also been a member of Justice League International, and has gone by the name “Warrior” at one point in his career… Another clue as to how arrogant he is.

When the previous Green Lantern of Sector 2814, an alien named Abin Sur crash-landed on Earth, he had to choose someone to replace him shortly before he died. The two most worthy men on the planet to pass his ring on to were Guy Gardner, and Hal Jordan. Hal was subsequently chosen because at the time he was closer to the crash-site, becoming the first Green Lantern of Earth almost purely by chance.

Should anything ever happen to Hal, or should he be unable to fulfill his duties, Guy Gardner would be Earth's sole Green Lantern. After finding this out, Hal journeyed to Baltimore and joined the Men's Club where Guy practiced physical fitness. The two of them quickly became friends, and continued into their careers when Gardner eventually got his own Green Lantern ring.

So while he’s a bruiting force of sheer arrogance, he is also one of the most ruthless yet relentless Green Lanterns of all-time. A suitable choice to be the lead of a Green Lantern show, especially with the extremely talented Finn Wittrock portraying the hero.

Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz are rather new characters, yet they’ve become beloved by comics fans, myself included. Jessica Cruz has a tragic origin story and I’m sure we’ll be seeing it during the show. While on a hunting trip with her friends, they unfortunately came across mobsters who were burying a body. Unwilling to have witnesses, the mobsters shot and killed Jessica's friends while Jessica herself managed to escape, but was extremely traumatized by the incident. Jessica developed debilitating anxiety and locked herself in her room for 4 years. She was afraid to even open her door and has clinical PTSD, as well as having a lot of trust issues.

Nevertheless, she was eventually able to overcome the PTSD, to an extent, and soon after venturing out of her apartment, she was met by a Green Lantern ring and the rest is history, Her ability to overcome extreme fear, fuels her powers even more and has made her into arguably the most powerful Green Lantern of all-time. Her friendship to Simon Baz has been what’s helped her to become the hero she’s now known to be, and has helped her with her own inner demons.

Baz is a Lebanese American and when he was ten years old, he and the rest of his family watched their television in horror as airplanes flew into the World Trade Center. As he grew up he and his Muslim family found themselves falling under intense suspicion and ostracism in the days, months and years following the attacks. During those years, Simon had to physically defend his sister from bullies on several occasions.

Despite these hardships, Simon managed to graduate high school, as well as obtaining a degree in engineering. However, he was later laid off from his job. In his desperation to make money, Simon took up illegal street-racing, and disaster struck during one race, and his brother in-law was severely injured and placed in a coma. Simon was barely able to escape being arrested and sent to prison for his part. As a result of his growing guilt, Simon grew increasingly distant from his sister. Simon was setup for a crime and he was able to overcome his fear and fought back. This caused a Green Lantern ring to come to him, and he was able to become a better man, thanks to Jessica Cruz, and to his training by the Lantern Corps.

I’m assuming that we’ll see Sinestro as a mentor to Guy Garnder, or Jessica Cruz and or Simon Baz, and his eventual rise into becoming a Yellow Lantern will come towards the end of the 10-episode first season. Mixed in with hints to his corruption and goal to find the Yellow Battery being evident more often than not. Thaal Sinestro was arguably the greatest Green Lantern ever, but over time her began to grow animosity towards the Guardians of Oa for their lack of resilience and, as he believes, misguided ways in doing business.

It’s not like Sinestro was perfect, when protecting his sector and doing business throughout the galaxy, Sinestro would always use fear as his means of interrogation. Which began to fester in him and grew his hatred towards the Green Lantern Corps even more. Having Sinestro involved with the show was inevitable, and seeing him be brought to life, again, will be really fun to witness. Outlander and Game of Thrones alum Tobias Menzies has reportedly joined the cast, and is heavily rumored to be playing Sinestro.

Don’t let his appearance fool you, Kilowog is one of my favorite Lanterns largely due to his sheer ability in caring for his allies and fellow Lanterns. He’ll take a bullet for any member of the Corps and has died multiple times in the comics because of sacrificing himself for others. Kilowog was a geneticist and one of the Bolovaxian race’s most brilliant minds. He hailed from the planet Bolovax Vik, which was one of the most crowded worlds in the universe; it had sixteen billion residents with a communal mind. After the previous Lantern, Branwilla, died, Kilowog was chosen to be a member of the Green Lantern Corps. It was a great honor, but it meant leaving Bolovax Vik and going into space on missions; this was tantamount to exile for a Bolovaxian. Nevertheless, Kilowog carried out his duties with pride. He would go on to be one of the Corps' best recruiters, trainers, and member in general.

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, his home world of Bolovax Vik was destroyed. His ring automatically protected him, but not his people. Acting quickly, he placed all sixteen billion life energies into his ring. By sheer force of his will, they survived until Kilowog found a suitable planet to release his people. Sadly, the planet was soon destroyed by Sinestro. Kilowog wasn’t able to rescue them again. He was now alone and lonely for good, which just gave him an extra drive to do good throughout the galaxy.

My ultimate theory is that, since we’ve already seen Sinestro’s origin before, the show will have him evil, he’ll have destroyed Bolovax Vik, and Kilowog will be Jesscia, Simon, and maybe Guy’s mentor. Since the show’s first season is being used to setup the inevitable Green Lantern Corps movie, that Warner Bros. has been working on for around 7-years now, I’m assuming that we’ll see flashbacks to Sinestro, as well as in real-time seeing his recruit members for his Sinectro Corps… Setting us the Green Lantern movie to be, “Sinestro Corps War.”

The Sinestro Corps is a group littered with hundreds of the galaxy’s most vile and sick minds. Kryb for instance is probably the most sadistic. She uses her crib-like back to hold babies which she slowly drains their life forces to prolong her own life. Karu-Sil will bite the necks of her victims and drink their blood… even though she isn’t a vampire and doesn’t have and kind of blood craving blood disease. Arkillo is a similar size to Kilowog and uses his strength to kill anyone that comes in his path. And that’s only a handful of the sick members that Sinestro has recruited over the years.

There are nine different Lantern Corps, one for each of the emotions:

Green: Will

Yellow: Fear

Red: Rage

Blue: Hope

Orange: Greed

Purple: Compassion

Pink: Love

Black: Dead

White: Life

While I don’t believe we’ll meet more than the Green and Yellow Lanterns, in the show at least, it is possible that we could see some pop up from time to time. The Red Lanterns in particular are a group that I would love to see at some point. The Red Lantern Corps was formed by Atrocitus of the Five Inversions, one of the five survivors of the Massacre of Sector 666. Using the blood magics of the Five Inversions, Atrocitus harnessed the red spectrum of light, allowing him to empower the rage within him. The Red Lantern Ring was born out of anger and crystallized the blood of the Inversions. Able to create more Rings he searched the galaxy for viable bearers, to join his army, and to try to take down the Green Lanterns for being unable to save his world.

One of Atrocitus’ most loyal followers is Bleez, who was once a member of the Sinestro Corps until she got fed up with them using her at times for their own sick intent. She joined the Red Lanterns and even has interesting ties to Guy Gardner. Guy, who has rage within him, at times has become seduced by the Red Lanterns, and been “brainwashed” into joining them, thanks to Bleez for helping him to unleash his rage. This stopped when she ordered him to annihilate an entire sector, and he was able to break free and rejoined the Green Lanterns after they admired his ability to overcome to rage, fear, and urge to do evil.

At the end of the day there is a LOT of source material that HBO Max and the writers have to go off of. It seems like Sinestro will be the villain of the first season, and that’s a smart decision considering he’s the Green Lantern’s greatest foe. No release date has been revealed, and filming hasn’t even started yet, but I’d assume it’ll release sometime in late 2022-early 2023.