Legends of Tomorrow concept art reveals early era Green Lantern we never got to see

Turns out we almost got some Green Lantern action in the Arrowverse long before the Arrow series finale — and now we have a peek at what a legit on-screen Lantern could have looked like.

Concept artist Andy Poon has revealed a design for what would’ve been early era Green Lantern Alan Scott on The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow. But just as soon as he got the sketch put together, Poon says they quickly learned DC higher-ups would not allow them to use the character. Which makes some sense, as certain characters have periodically been deemed off limits at times in the Arrowverse (Amanda Waller, Deadshot, etc.), and the fact that a revived Green Lantern movie has been in various phases of development since the early days of the DCEU (RIP).

According to Poon, the aborted take on Green Lantern was changed into Hourman, a more obscure DC hero who appeared in Season 1 of Legends of Tomorrow, once the Lantern idea was taken off the table. Even cooler? The artist used former big screen Green Lantern Ryan Reynolds as the face for the design, just to give it that familiar Lantern-y vibe.

But alas, the small screen Alan Scott was not in the cards.

Of course, patient fans did eventually get a Green Lantern nod a few years later, we just had to wait until the series finale of Arrow, which flashed ahead to see John Diggle finding his very own Lantern ring. Not to mention an HBO Max series based on the Green Lantern Corps is also now in development.

Legends of Tomorrow’s current, Green Lantern-less season airs Tuesdays on The CW.