Arrowverse’s Scrapped Green Lantern Costume For Major Hero Finally Revealed In New Concept Art

The canceled Green Lantern arc for the Arrowverse finally gets revealed as the costume for the Arrow hero is unveiled in new DC concept art. The CW’s Arrowverse franchise was able to adapt various elements from DC Comics onto the screen, but there were also a number of plot points that, for various reasons, weren’t able to go forward. One of them was John Diggle becoming Green Lantern, despite plenty of setup for him becoming an Emerald Knight.

Since Diggle’s time in the Arrowverse is essentially over, Arrow co-creator Marc Guggenheim has now revealed what David Ramsey’s character would have looked like in the costume. In his latest edition of Legal Dispatch, Guggenheim unveiled two pieces of concept art of Diggle’s Arrow season 8 costume modified as a Green Lantern uniform. The concept art for both suits was made by Keith Lau, while costume designer Brie Thorpe would have produced it had it been approved. Check out both of the designs below:

Why Arrowverse Never Got To Explore The Green Lantern Mythology Explained

The Decision Came From Warner Bros. & DC

As much foundation as the Arrowverse set for Diggle’s evolution into Green Lantern, the storyline was prevented by the higher-ups at Warner Bros. and DC. Initially, in the Arrow series finale, when Diggle gets a mysterious alien box, it was heavily implied to be a Green Lantern ring. Guggenheim had said in an interview back in January 2020 with Entertainment Weekly, “This was something that was worked out over a year ahead with DC Entertainment. We very specifically negotiated and discussed the parameters, and I feel like to say anything beyond what we have shown you would violate our agreement with DC.”

When the Arrowverse was in its prime, it was very well known that there were a lot of major DC characters and elements that the franchise couldn’t use due to Warner Bros.’ film division wanting to prioritize some of them for the big screen. Not only was a Green Lantern Corps movie in development for the DCEU, but Greg Berlanti was developing a Green Lantern TV show for HBO Max, which is very likely why the Arrowverse couldn’t go further with Diggle’s story.

In the end, it is disappointing that the Arrowverse couldn’t use the Green Lantern concept, especially given that Diggle had a lot of similarities to John Stewart as a character. Nevertheless, it is still fascinating to see where they could have gone with Diggle’s costume from Arrow season 8, as it was essentially a prototype suit for Green Lantern. However, with the new Lanterns series coming to HBO, any Arrow viewer who wants to see these heroes explored on television will finally get that chance.

Source: Marc Guggenheim