Editorial – WB’s “wait and see” Green Lantern approach does more harm than good.

For the past month I’ve been terribly sick with a bad case of pneumonia, and while I haven’t had the energy to be as active as I’d like I’ve spent some of my time keeping up with any news regarding Green Lantern’s role in the upcoming Justice League films.  The official news hasn’t been terribly positive and despite the continued teasing by actor Dan Amboyer it seems more and more likely that Green Lantern doesn’t feature into the formation of the League.  It’s a depressing situation for a fan for a number of reasons, but I think what is the most disheartening is that it shows a lack of faith in the product.

Many people, myself included, have said that a soft reboot of the character in the first two Justice League films would be a great way to re-establish the character in the minds of the general public before going on to the 2020 Green Lantern Corps film.  Recent comments from Warner Brothers executive Greg Silverman and Batman v Superman producer Charles Roven certainly imply that fans need to be patient when it comes to Green Lantern.

“[Green Lantern] is an incredible character. He’s actually multiple incredible characters. There’s real opportunity there. We didn’t do a great job on that first Green Lantern movie. This is a character who deserves to be treated in the same way that Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman are being treated now, which is with great reverence. I guess I can say to the Green Lantern fans: if they can be patient with us, I think they’ll be really happy.”  – Greg Silverman

“Every beat of the movie is not yet worked out. So there’s the possibility that he may or may not be in Justice League 2. For now, we felt that we were introducing enough characters that the best possible place we could put Green Lantern is some introduction in Justice League 2, or barring that, a movie after.” – Producer Charles Roven

Those two statements really dampened the enthusiasm from a great many Green Lantern fans, particularly after the recent CW Dawn of the Justice League television special creating some optimism along with repeated teases from Amboyer and actors who are making known their interest in playing one of the characters.  In Amboyer’s case he’s made a second career out of toying with fans about playing Hal Jordan and if in the end he’s just toying with us he deserves any backlash he gets.

To add insult to injury there is the recent announcement about a writer being hired for a Lobo film.  We’ve got casting announcements for Commissioner Gordon in the Justice League, a writer for Lobo and nothing for Green Lantern at this point.  Combined with the continued Green Lantern references which don’t pay off in DC’s television universe it’s become a point of frustration for many at this point.  While Silverman wants fans to be patient with them they need to give us something to hold us over.

We are on the cusp of the Dawn of Justice and maybe, just maybe, the Amboyer role is the key to this and by the end of the week we can start hoping again.  Maybe not, but with every announcement Warner Brothers is harming their chances at earning something near and dear to all Lantern fans – good will.