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Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre have hung up their rings now that DC’s “Lanterns” has finished its superhero murder-mystery. But newly revealed art from HBO’s canceled Green Lantern series reveals what Finn Wittrock’s Guy Gardner would’ve looked like on the small screen. While “Lanterns” has been a major win for DC, earning a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes, some audiences wanted to see more of the cosmic side that comes with the space cops.
Arrowverse architect Marc Guggenheim was working on a previous version of the show with Greg Berlanti before it was scrapped by HBO, and it would’ve had Wittrock playing Gardner in a very cosmic adventure. The producer revealed concept art of the actor on Substack, also showing off imagery depicting a squad of Lanterns fighting a horde of aliens while wielding different green construct weapons. The early design of Wittrock’s suit was closer to the classic Hal Jordan costume compared to Gardner’s leather jacket look.
Before LANTERNS, there was EMERALD KNIGHTS.
Marc Guggenheim just revealed concept art from HBO Max’s cancelled GREEN LANTERN series.
Show was split across 2 eras:
• 1941: Alan Scott (Jeremy Irvine)⁰• 1984: Guy Gardner (Finn Wittrock) and new half alien Lantern Bree Jarta… pic.twitter.com/a3KZyLivvR
— DC Film News (@DCFilmNews) October 8, 2026
Guggenheim did note in the description that it would’ve been tweaked to be closer to the jacket design seen in “Justice League International” comics. What’s interesting is that the Wittrock design doesn’t feature Gardner’s classic bowl cut or his red hair, and it’d be easy to mistake the actor for playing Hal Jordan (or even another Lantern called Kyle Rayner). But even the cosmic-style suit of armor is completely different from the uniform briefly seen in “Lanterns,” suggesting the show would’ve had a vastly different trajectory.
Lanterns shares similarities with HBO’s canceled Green Lantern series
Despite the vast differences between the projects, there is some shared DNA between them. Marc Guggenheim told his Substack followers, “Our original took place in two time periods and had the Manhunters as the primary villains and my original title pitch was ‘Emerald Knights.'” HBO’s “Lanterns” is mainly told across three time periods, focusing on Hal Jordan and John Stewart’s investigation into the Manhunters in 2016, before flashing forward to 2026 after Jordan’s murder.
But that framing is where the two projects deviate from each other. The original plan was to begin with the first human Green Lantern, Alan Scott, depicted as a closeted FBI agent in the 1940s. This would’ve been a stark contrast to Wittrock’s version of Gardner, who was described in the original show’s description as the “embodiment of 1980s hyper-patriotism.” The post also included art of a new member of the Green Lantern Corps called Bree Jarta, and concept artist Laura Jean Shannon seemingly used Janelle Monae’s likeness for the character.
The canceled Green Lantern series was redeveloped after Warner Bros. merged with Discovery in April 2022, with James Gunn and Peter Safran choosing to change the project’s direction when they were hired as the co-chairmen of DC Studios. “Lanterns” has definitely been a success, and it’ll be great to see Aaron Pierre continue throughout the DCU as John Stewart, but the canceled Green Lantern series is still a tantalizing “what if” scenario for longtime comic fans.
