Here’s a neat glimpse at what might have been: Arrow co-creator Marc Guggenheim has revealed the unused concept art for John Diggle (David Ramsey) suited up as Green Lantern.
Guggenheim posted the sketches on July 5 on his Substack, responding to a question about whatever happened with Diggle and the planned Green Lantern arc. As Guggenheim noted, “Unfortunately, we never got the approval to go full ‘Green Lantern’ with Diggle, but we were always trying to push the envelope as much as possible. For example, check out the proposed Season 8 costume for Dig that we weren’t able to slip past the powers that be:”
The designs are by costume designer Brie Thorpe, who worked on both The Flash and Arrow, and illustrator Keith Lau, who has done concept art for everything from the shows mentioned previously, to multiple Star Trek series, The Umbrella Academy, and more.
For those not familiar with what went down… After years of fans calling for Diggle to become the Arrow-verse’s version of Green Lantern John Stewart, the series finale paid off on the premise with Diggle discovering a crashed meteor and a box with an eerie green light. After that, Diggle showed up in multiple other Arrow-verse series, teasing his decision to become the Green Lantern. He ultimately decided not to become Green Lantern to spend time with his family… But would have potentially suited up in a proposed series tentatively titled Justice U, which would have had Diggle teaching a new generation of heroes.
That also never happened, mostly because James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over DC Studios finished the Arrow-verse for good (other than Superman & Lois, which has one season to go). However, we now at least have a look at what Diggle might have looked like.
And the costume is basically what Diggle’s costume already was as Spartan on Arrow, but with a Green Lantern symbol. It’s interesting to see they would have gone that route; which mind you, seems more practical and consistent with Arrow than full-on spandex. It also brings Diggle’s potential design more in line with the Lantern Simon Baz, who also carries a gun, than John Stewart (who does not).
But that’s all we got! John Diggle will never be Green Lantern on TV. But we’ll always have Marc Guggenheim’s Substack.
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