Little is known about the upcoming Green Lantern TV Show on HBO Max, other than that it will feature a number of superheroes belonging to the Green Lantern Corps instead of focusing on one character. Now, The Direct is reporting that the show will be set in multiple timelines, with different lead characters belonging to different time periods.

"Sources indicate that the show will feature the 1940s, the 1980s, and the modern-day as settings. How the series will alternate between these time periods is currently unknown. Alan Scott is also mentioned as being included in the series as a gay man, who has to traverse 1940s America whilst hiding this fact from the society around him. Meanwhile, Guy Gardner will be featured in the 1980s as a hyper-masculine and abrasive character, similar to his portrayal in the comics."

Having multiple time periods would make sense for a show that is set to feature many Green Lanterns from different eras from the comics, including, but not limited to, Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, Alan Scott, Sinestro, and Kilowog. The only prominent name missing from the lineup so far is Hal Jordan, who has been the de-facto Green Lantern for most live-action adaptations of the character so far.

Keeping Hal Jordan out of the mix would actually help keep the focus on the other characters, as will the fact that the project is going to be a series instead of a two-hour movie. In the past, writer and producer Marc Guggenheim had explained how the Green Lantern show will feature the best parts of television and film.

"You've got to look at [making a show] with a different tempo than you would have in a two-hour movie. That being said, certainly the show for HBO Max that we're all working on, we are approaching it with the production ambitions of a movie. So we're writing it like a TV show but we're hoping to produce it like a film."

In any other genre, the fact that the characters belong to different time periods would mean they never meet. But this is the comic book world, where time travel is as common as bus travel. It is more than likely that if the action is set to take place in different time periods, they will all be linked together by some common factor, and sooner or later, all the Green Lanterns will come together to save the day.

Whichever time period the show ends up taking place in, and whichever characters make it into the storyline, what Green Lantern fans want more than anything else is a show that is actually good. The fandom has been burned before with the Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds.

Guggenheim was a writer on that project as well, although he has since indicated his script was heavily reworked by the studio throughout a muddled production that was responsible for the less-than-warmly-received end product. Hopefully, the upcoming series will be a vindication of sorts for Guggenheim as well as Green Lantern fans. This news was first reported at The Direct.