I mean, it comes out next year, right? You must be thinking to yourself that surely they’re getting ready to film or have a director or a finished script by now, yeah? Actors lined up? In auditions, at least? Even casting calls?

No, they have none of that.

You may remember when “Green Lantern Corps” was announced just about a full 5 years ago in 2014, set for 2020. I know I remember how far away that seemed from 2014 when I heard that, yet here we are. We have never been told and there has not been any announcement or press release whatsoever that it will not still see release that (next) year… so we are left to assume that it is, right?

You may remember when Geoff Johns simultaneously stepped down as DC Entertainment President and DC Chief Creative Officer (CCO) to accept a “promotion” to focus on the script for “Green Lantern Corps” (2020), a script WB never had any obligation to produce or put into motion, and hasn’t since. An odd thing, wasn’t it? He was shaping up to be the Kevin Feige of the DCEU.

You may remember the exciting talk in 2017 that the movie would be “Lethal Weapon in Space,” presumably with Hal Jordan and John Stewart recreating Riggs and Murtaugh (respectively) type of camaraderie and banter.

I know I remember Geoff talking about the film in 2018. “I want to make sure I write the best script I can possibly write, so I need to go away in a cave and write that script and finish it and then come out and go ‘okay’ and work with the guys and really make sure we’ve got the best story to tell and the best way into this character. I think we have a lot of things in it that… people know my run from Green Lantern and so they shouldn’t be too surprised by seeing what we bring into it.” Eh. Well, we know a lot of things from his run in Green Lantern… so I’m not certain what the takeaway there is, but methinks it is not good.

Maybe you recall the rumblings about Chris McQuarrie directing Tom Cruise as Hal in the film also in 2018. I don’t doubt some kind of conversation took place on some level perhaps, but clearly this was much ado about nothing.

Maybe you remember back in January when Deadline re-announced the movie, to be written by Geoff Johns. But they just appeared to be suddenly aware of old/existing information, not stumbling upon anything new.

Just a bit ago there was the rumor (though not from any reputable source) that Hal was set to be killed off early in the movie, with John Stewart set to take the spotlight. That was only a couple of months ago, so you probably remember that.

Earlier last month former DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson Tweeted that “[Geoff Johns] is no buddy of mine.” You might not have heard that because it wasn’t widely circulated… but it’s interesting, when taken into the big picture of things. Yikes.

Throughout all of this, the exact number of official, actual press releases about the movie since the original announcement of this film in 2014 (not including the announcement of Geoff’s “promotion” to focus on writing the script)? Judges…?

So hey, what’s really going on?

The short answer is probably “Nothing, really.” It’s not hard to figure out that Geoff Johns took the fall as DC Entertainment President and CCO after the overwhelmingly negative backlash to films like “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice” and especially “Justice League,” (movies he co-produced and oversaw) and the spin about “he’s moving on now, to work on movies!” is largely to let him save face at large while WB tries to lick its wounds and move on. Obviously all of the faults of “Justice League” and the like can’t be pinned on Geoff, but he was at the wheel at the time and calling the shots. It’d be like Kevin Feige if “Avengers” was the laughing stock of filmgoers and landed in the red… that’d have been it for him.

Also shaking things up is the “stepping down” of WB CEO Kevin Tsujihara and the appointing of Anna Sarnoff as his replacement. We can be reasonably certain of Kevin’s belief in Geoff’s vision for “Green Lantern Corps”… but with him gone, what exactly do we know of Anna’s? Nothing at all. For all we know she came in the door and threw his script in the trash or sent it back with 5,000 sticky notes. We do know that nobody liked Geoff Johns’ “The Batman” script he co-wrote with Ben Affleck. Well, to be fair and specific… nobody that needed to like it liked it at WB. And that’s what ended the Affleck version of the movie (and arguably the Affleck version of Batman, to boot) and led to conversations with Matt Reeves.

A look at Geoff Johns’ personal website for his “Mad Ghost Productions” (a production outfit which as far as I can tell is basically just… him?) reveals only a now-classic Ivan Reis image of Hal, John and Guy lighting up rings (tellingly absent: Kyle Rayner and also absent, the 2020 date that was there on the website even just a few months ago) with the somewhat confusing caption: “Once of DC Comics’ greatest Super Hero universes, the film will feature Hal Jordan and John Stewart… ” Once of DC Comics’ greatest Super Hero universes? Huh? Does he mean “Once ONE of DC Comics’ greatest Super Hero universes”? As in, it’s not anymore? What? Like, does he mean it stopped being great when he event fatigued the whole thing into the ground in comics with about 35 back-to-back megavents, rife with double-splash pages and $3.99 issues you could read in 2 minutes? Maybe he means when the 2011 “Green Lantern” premiered and was a critical and financial flop (and embarrassed WB so badly that they appallingly wouldn’t even allow a Green Lantern on the team in the freaking “Justice League” movie), that he himself co-produced and reportedly had full creative veto power over? Let’s assume he meant to type “One of DC Comics’ greatest Super Hero universes,” for the sake of argument. Though aren’t they all in the same one?

Time will tell, folks. There is the hubbub that in the wake of JJ Abrams’ new deal with WB, he will be the Kevin Feige apparent there with their superhero division… so perhaps everything is in a flux until JJ wraps his fingers around what’s on the slate, including “Green Lantern Corps.” Which may or may not include Geoff’s script. Alternately, it’s possible that there no longer is any “Green Lantern Corps” movie on the docket and that the whole thing has shifted form into the rumored “Green Lantern Corps” TV show for HBO Max.

Discuss it on the board here.

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