The Arrowverse has a Green Arrow, a Flash, a Superman, and an as-yet-unseen Batman. Green Lantern, however, is missing in action. That hasn’t stopped shows from hinting repeatedly that the pieces for a Lantern character exist. Arrow‘s David Ramsey spoke about the possibility of a Green Lantern show in a recent interview with ComicBook.com.
“I cannot tell you how many times,” Ramsey said when talking about how many discussions he and executive producer Marc Guggenheim have talked about Green Lantern joining the CW in some way. “But really, I don’t have to knock on Marc’s door. He’s been incredibly forthright with letting me know the plan, and letting me know some of the politics behind it.”
“Green Lantern is a tremendously large property, and it’s not easily done. If it was done on TV, imagine the cost. So it’s one of those things where it’s going to take a great deal of preparation if and when it’s ever done.”
John Diggle is our man
Ramsey, one of the very earliest members of Arrow‘s cast, can speak to this because he would be first on the list if the CW were to make such a show. Ramsey plays John Diggle on the show, Oliver Queen’s friend and fellow vigilante. Fans have pointed to the character as a potential Lantern for years. Diggle has a close relationship with the Green Arrow, and his name happens to be John. The Arrowverse even made the idea semi-canonical during last year’s ‘Elseworlds’ crossover.
There, the Earth-90 Flash, played by John Wesley Shipp, looked at Diggle and asked him where his ring was – which many fans took as a hint that we might see a Green Lantern in the upcoming ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths‘ five-part crossover. The shows have also name-dropped Coast City and Ferris Air, and we saw a pilot in a jacket with the name Jordan pass by the camera at one point.
A Green Lantern show needs more than the power of imagination
Cost is the biggest hurdle here. Hopes and wishes aside, Green Lantern is a difficult character to get right. You can hang Superman from a wire and cut around Green Arrow, but Green Lantern is all VFX.
We only have to look back as far as 2011 to see that. Two of the most beloved names in comic-book movies today appeared in the dismal Green Lantern. Ryan Reynolds (star of Deadpool) and Taika Waititi (director of Thor: Ragnarok) have both proven to have a keen eye for capturing comic-book characters, and the movie still crashed and burned. If the Green Lantern were to appear anywhere in the Arrowverse, though, a blowout crossover like ‘Crisis’ would be the time to do it.
Ramsey and Co. have not outright denied the possibility of a ‘Crisis’ Green Lantern appearance, but Ramsey’s words make it sound like it might be an insurmountable difficulty for the relatively small network to make something like that happen.
‘Crisis on Infinite Earths‘ premieres on Sunday, December 8. Check out the whole schedule right here.
