Green Lantern HBO Max Series Gets Superman & Lois Director

The Green Lantern series headed to HBO Max has landed Lee Toland Krieger as the director for the show’s first two episodes, bringing the cosmic side of DC Comics to the small screen. Krieger is best known for his work on Superman & Lois and Riverdale. With more ties to CW veterans, the series is set to be produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. television. It is being written by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Seth Grahame-Smith. There is no premiere date or expected window for Green Lantern‘s debut on HBO Max just yet.

The Green Lantern series is aiming to reinvent the classic DC property through a story spanning multiple decades and galaxies. It will begin on Earth in 1941 with the very first Green Lantern, secretly gay FBI agent Alan Scott. It will also be set in 1984, with cocky alpha male Guy Gardner and half-alien Bree Jarta. Gardner will be played by Finn Wittrock. They’ll be joined by a multitude of other Lanterns — a roster which will include Lanterns known from the pages of DC Comics and characters unique to the TV series.

Berlanti, Guggenheim and Grahame-Smith serve as executive producers with Geoff Johns, Sarah Schechter, David Madden and David Katzenberg. Elizabeth Hunter and Sara Saedi co-executive produce. This is Krieger’s first HBO Max production but renews a longstanding collaborative partnership with Berlanti Productions and WBTV.

Krieger directed the pilot episode of Superman & Lois which was quickly renewed for a second season, as well as the first three episodes and the Season 1 finale of Riverdale. On Netflix, Krieger directed the first two episodes of the creepy thriller You, as well as the first two episodes of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. and the first two episodes of Shadow and Bone. He also directed the premiere of the popular but recent canceled Prodigal Son series which starred The Walking Dead vet Tom Payne.

In a panel hosted by ComicBook.com’s Russ Burlingame last month, series co-creator Marc Guggenheim confirmed that while the series will be developed as a television show, it will very much have the production quality of a blockbuster movie.

“I happen to believe — and this is not a universally-held opinion — that you can’t do a ten-hour show or an eight-episode show, like an 8-hour movie,” Guggenheim said. “I don’t think that works. When I see it done, there’s always some flabby episodes in the middle. I think you have to approach it like a TV series and approach each episode like its own entity. Even though it’s streaming, even though hopefully people will binge it, you’ve got to make each episode a satisfying meal. You’ve got to look at it with a different tempo than you would have in a two-hour movie.”

Are you excited for the Green Lantern series? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! This news was first reported by Deadline.