Though he by no means would have gone “full Inexperienced Lantern,” there have been plans to make the connection quite a bit clearer to followers.
The historical past of Arrow‘s John Diggle as a Inexperienced Lantern stand-in is lengthy and generally irritating — even for the folks making the present. Due to the long-standing relationship between Inexperienced Lantern and Inexperienced Arrow within the comics, some followers virtually instantly perked up when Oliver’s bodyguard/sidekick/finest good friend on TV turned out to be a Black former Marine named John. It did not appear to matter a lot that Oliver Queen is usually proven as teaming up with Hal Jordan, not John Stewart, or that Diggle’s final identify was…properly…Diggle. The hypothesis persevered till the present lastly began to toy with the concept.
Finally, within the sequence finale, Diggle was knocked over by some type of cosmic merchandise which audiences knew was a Inexperienced Lantern ring. Within the earlier season, we had met his stepfather, whose identify was Stewart and who “principally” raised Diggle, so the accepted interpretation was that John was embracing his future (even when it was too costly for us to see it on TV). There was one other bit after the actual fact, the place The Flash roughly stated “eh, he did not like being a Inexperienced Lantern so overlook about that,” however that is a special dialog.
John Diggle (David Ramsey) within the Arrow finale.
– Warner Bros. TV/The CW)
The purpose is, there was a seemingly unending give-and-take between what followers (and actor David Ramsey) wished and what producers had been really allowed to present. Since Ramsey wished to proceed showing as John Diggle — who type of turned the Arrowverse‘s Nick Fury, capable of transfer between principally any present as a consequence of his official relationship with A.R.G.U.S. and his private relationships with the heroes — that closing “ending” could not be an “ending” with out getting approval to swimsuit him up as a Inexperienced Lantern — one thing that both DC, or Warner Bros., or each, was at all times unwilling to present.
Within the newest difficulty of his Authorized Dispatch publication, Guggenheim addressed questions on this from “a good friend…within the comedian e-book group.” He confirmed that Diggle as a GL was at all times a non-starter, however that they had tried and didn’t get him a fancy dress improve for the ultimate season of Arrow:
“Sadly, we by no means obtained the approval to go full ‘Inexperienced Lantern’ with Diggle, however we had been at all times attempting to push the envelope as a lot as potential,” Guggenheim stated. “For instance, take a look at the proposed Season 8 costume for Dig that we weren’t capable of slip previous the powers that be.” He really shared two — one very Inexperienced Lantern-inspired jacket, and a second that he referred to as extra “delicate,” however that is nonetheless fairly identifiable if you happen to see it in the fitting mild:
…It is not arduous to think about that, if these had snuck previous, the chest emblem would have lit up good when that ring field opened on the finish of the present. It is value noting the manufacturing identify was “Inexperienced Spartan,” with Spartan being Diggle’s official callsign inside A.R.G.U.S. and Crew Arrow.
Guggenheim praised the work of Costume Designer Brie Thorpe and Illustrator Keith Lau on the sadly-unused designs.
There’s lots of unstated baggage right here: first, this sketch comes the identical week set images from James Gunn’s Superman emerged, with some followers excited to see their first take a look at Nathan Fillion’s Man Gardner in motion, however simply as many fairly sad with the look, drawing comparisons to the failed Justice League of America pilot from 1997. In fact, any costume followers do not like additionally attracts comparisons to The CW‘s costumes, which ranged from feature-film high quality to “dude in a leather-based jacket,” the latter being particularly frequent on Arrow (the place they had been largely simply street-level vigilantes) and Smallville (the place it first turned a working gag).
In addition to all of that, Guggenheim and Arrowverse boss Greg Berlanti each labored on the failed Inexperienced Lantern film. They, together with Michael Inexperienced and Michael Goldenberg, had been credited as screenwriters on the movie (though an earlier draft of the script, accessible on-line, exhibits how wildly totally different the ultimate product ended up). Guggenheim has spoken earlier than about how, when The CW approached the pair to pitch on Arrow, he was so nervous about being seen as a “superhero killer” that one of many situations was, if the present did not go ahead, no person would ever recognized it occurred in any respect.
In fact, it did go on to occur, run for eight seasons, and spawn a sprawling shared universe that’s the greatest DC Universe ever in live-action. Even when it by no means obtained an actual Inexperienced Lantern.
