Last weekend, HBO’s Lanterns came to an end. Like the rest of the show, its resolution was composed of more emotional struggles and internal bouts than outright superhero space lasers. With the series in the rearview, Arrowverse showrunner Marc Guggenheim decided to give fans their biggest peek at “Emerald Knights,” a cancelled CW-minded approach to the Green Lantern Corps.
While Lanterns followed Hal Jordan and John Stewart relentlessly hazing each other, Knights appeared to expand the scope to the broader cast. In never before seen concept art posted on Guggenheim’s Substack, we see seven Lanterns having a last stand against some slobbering alien fiends. Among them are Guy Gardner (looking a lot more like ‘90s Lantern Kyle Rayner), Kilowog and what might be the back of Sinestro’s perfectly pink head. The show would have starred Gardner and an original character named Bree Jarta. While it may have little significance beyond pre-production, concepts for the two characters have a striking resemblance to American Horror Story’s Finn Wittrock and musician Janelle Monáe.
Despite obvious visual differences, it seems Emerald Knights shared a number of similarities to what we saw in Lanterns. For one, both shows would have been set between different time periods, in fact larger ones, split between Gardner in the ‘80s and original Green Lantern Alan Scott in the ‘40s. Likewise, the primary villain would not have been Jordan’s arch-rival Sinestro but the unstoppable Manhunters, who ended up with a stronger Invasion of the Body Snatchers quality in the final product.
While tempting to assume Knights was to be part of the vast, long-running Arrowverse, the show was actually destined for the same place as Lanterns. The pitch Guggenheim developed, largely as writer, was also commissioned by HBO in 2020. A pretty turbulent era for Warner Bros. and its DC comics stars, the series fell apart around 2022 just as the ‘Snyderverse’ sought an exit. In 2024, the torch was ultimately picked up by James Gunn, now running the entire DCU, who spearheaded the Green Lantern series we see today.
With a considerably different tone and noticeably more conservative budgetary constraints, Lanterns still captured people’s attention with the charismatic grudge-fest between its two leading super dudes. Its loudest critics felt it lacked major fights and pulls from the comics, but if its hollow cameos and multi-colored CGI food fights they want there’s like no shortage of those on Disney+.