With Lanterns set to premiere this Sunday, The Ankler has published a report detailing the show's tumultuous journey to the screen, while also sharing disappointing updates on some other small-screen DCU projects.
Despite DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn recently assuring fans that both Waller and Paradise Lost are still moving forward, Lesley Goldberg believes that they are no longer in development.
Announced as part of the initial "Gods and Monsters" DCU slate, Paradise Lost was conceived as a Wonder Woman-adjacent series focusing on Diana's fellow Amazonian warriors. "Set in Themyscira, home of the Amazons and birthplace of Wonder Woman," reads the official logline, "this drama focuses on the genesis and political intrigue of an island of all women."
Waller, meanwhile, had seemed a little closer to coming to fruition, and we had heard that Viola Davis was all set to reprise her role as the DCU's ruthless A.R.G.U.S. chief.
Davis debuted as "The Wall" in David Ayer's Suicide Squad before making appearances in Gunn's The Suicide Squad and the Peacemaker show. She also provided the voice of the character in the recent Creature Commandos animated series, and returned for the second season of Peacemaker.
"A live action series, the spinoff of Peacemaker, centered around Amanda Waller and her relationship with her daughter, Leota. If there's one government bureaucrat who shouldn't be messed with, it’s Amanda Waller, founder of the infamous Task Force X, better known as the Suicide Squad," reads Waller's logline.
Apparently, the Booster Gold series is still moving forward and a new writer is currently being sought. However, those rumored Poison Ivy and Catwoman shows we've been hearing about won't be happening after DC and HBO passed on the respective pitches.
Details on the potential Catwoman series were sparse, but the Poison Ivy show was rumored to be set in Matt Reeves' "BatVerse."
What do you make of these updates? Were you surprised to hear that Paradise Lost and Waller have been shelved, or did you feel that the writing was on the wall?
Lanterns is set to debut on August 17 and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios. The pilot episode is co-written by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, who are co-creators for the series. Mundy serves as showrunner. The first two episodes are directed by James Hawes, with Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov also tapped to direct. The series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, James Gunn, Peter Safran, King, Ron Schmidt, and Hawes. Based on the DC comic characters from Green Lantern.
The series stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
The series follows new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
"This is a story of a couple of Green Lanterns John Stewart and Hal Jordan," James Gunn said of the project when it was first announced. "We have a few other Lanterns peppered in there but this is really a terrestrial based TV show which is almost like True Detective with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over Precinct Earth in it they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our largest story of the DCU."