Grant Morrison takes aim at the DC Universe! The writer calls out Lanterns scribe Damon Lindelof for recent comments he made about the name Green Lantern.
It’s been a wild week for the DC Universe. Fans weren’t happy with the Lanterns trailer, broadly critiquing the lack of color and space adventures in the series. While there are plenty of arguments for and against this type of framing for a Green Lantern story, the internet exploded when an old clip of series writer Damon Lindelof resurfaced.
The video comes from an appearance that Damon Lindelof made on the Lovett or Leave It show in September 2024, about half a year before Lanterns started production. During the chat, the writer remarked that the team behind the DC Universe series decided on the name Lanterns because “Green Lantern” simply sounded stupid.
“It’s called Lanterns, because we all agreed that the ‘Green’ was stupid.”
Grant Morrison Speaks Out On Green Lantern
This comment caused a veritable firestorm across the internet. Though perhaps the most shocking part is that acclaimed DC Universe writer Grant Morrison responded to Damon Lindelof’s old comments on his Substack. In the post, Morrison derided the idea that the name Green Lantern could be seen as silly, and that the mentality that led to naming the series Lanterns is the same thing that will end up killing Hollywood.
“TV writer/producer Damon Lindelof’s comments notwithstanding, the ‘Green’ in ‘Green Lantern(s)’ green is not ‘stupid’. Why does a writer attach himself to this kind of narrative if he thinks it’s fundamentally ‘stupid’? You don’t hand CSI scripts to patronising writers who condemn forensics experts and their haircuts as ‘stupid’, so why hire people who are ashamed and in denial about the comic book material they’ve been assigned to develop? Why don’t they turn down jobs they’re not suited for?”
“It’s not like he needs the money, and Lindelof has proven that he can come up with his own ideas. What is this jockish dismissal of superhero conventions intended to prove anyway? Does Lindelof imagine it makes him seem less nerdy? It’s a bit too late for that, so what’s it all about? The only people who give a f*ck about the Lanterns TV series are Green Lantern fans. Why alienate them at the start? That feels more like ‘stupid’.”
“‘Green Lanterns’ is a much more evocative and dramatic title than ‘Lanterns’, (just as ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ is a better movie title than ‘Raise the Lantern’), and anyone who can’t grasp why that is shouldn’t be anywhere near superhero stories. The show might even be good, but how much better could this stuff be if studios were willing to hire the right people for the job instead of phoning their embarrassed friends to water the source material down? Hollywood will die of insularity and inbreeding.”
The intensity of Grant Morrison’s statements against Damon Lindelof has left fans split, with some supporting the new title of Lanterns and others championing the iconic nature of Green Lantern. The ultimate test of this mentality, though, will be whether the series sinks or swims, proving to the executives what path the DC Universe should take going forward.
The Green Lantern series Lanterns is set to debut in HBO later this year. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the future of the DC Universe!
