Director/writer/producer/showrunner Greg Berlanti has carved out quite the successful career for himself as the architect of superhero shows on millennial-skewing The CW. It wasn’t always this way. Berlanti wrote and produced in television for years (“Dawson’s Creek,” “Everwood,” “Jack & Bobby”), but his directorial feature work usually amounted to fairly generic rom-com fare (“Life As We Know It,” “The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy”). But superheroes appeared to have always been in his blood. The filmmaker got the keys to “Green Lantern” and then, with the help of director Martin Campbell and screenwriters Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim, and Michael Goldenberg, helped grind that franchise into the ground with an expensive Warner Bros. flop that neither audiences or critics cared for at all. Berlanti was rumored to be one of the filmmakers developing a “Flash” movie (with the same team of “Green Lantern” writers), but after ‘Lantern’ faceplanted, it seems that iteration of the project was quickly iced.
One would think Berlanti would go in another direction. Instead, the producer pivoted and is basically responsible for the CW’s success with “The Flash” (he finally got to work with that character), “Arrow” and “Legends Of Tomorrow.” Berlanti also helped develop “Supergirl,” which is now moving from CBS to CW, under the umbrella with the rest of his shows. So once looking like a helmer that was done with comic-book movies, Berlanti redeemed and has transformed himself into one of the most powerful showrunners on television right now.
READ MORE: Capes & Cowls: A History Of Superheroes On TV
But it appears that Berlanti is still trying to get back to superheroes on the big screen. In a recent THR interview, the showrunner confirmed recent rumors (started on Kevin Smith’s podcast) that he is developing a “Booster Gold” movie at Warner Bros., and Zack Stentz (“X-Men: First Class,” “Thor”) is writing the film.
“I’m attached to a few films [at Warner Bros.] now, and one, ‘Booster Gold,’ is a DC property,” he confirmed. “Zack Stentz, who wrote an episode of ‘Flash’ last year, just got the job, so he’s writing the script now. I’d probably direct that, or I would want to.”
This news seems to negate an old rumor that alleged a Booster Gold and Blue Beetle buddy comedy comic-book movie was in the works, but it was Berlanti allegedly developing that project, so perhaps it was simply an early iteration of what’s now confirmed.
Now, this is good news for Berlanti — if the movie is ever greenlit — but one has to wonder where Booster Gold fits into the dark and self-serious world of Zack Snyder’s DC Comics Universe. Some of the more celebrated versions of Booster Gold were the comical versions in the Justice League — hence the Blue Beetle buddy-comedy rumors — though the character came from dishonorable origins. Originally a star quarterback in the future, Gold was disgraced and kicked out of the future’s version of the NFL for betting on his own games Pete Rose-style (hey, we don’t make this stuff up).
For a second chance, Gold stole a flying power suit in a museum and used a time-travel device to teleport into the past and reinvent himself as a superhero (albeit an incorporated one and a shameless self-promoter). The interesting and complex human element of the character was that he was living a lie: a cheat and a liar looking for public adoration he received as a celebrated football champion.
But does that work alongside the Batman and Superman that Zack Snyder has created? Well, as “grounded” as the series is thus far in its grimness, it’s still pretty fantastical (and silly), so maybe Gold will fit right in. Though WB is probably developing several Justice League characters at the moment to see if they can fit within the Snyderverse, so hold your horses before you believe all of these projects will make it to the screen. Many of them won’t, but take a wait-and-see approach and hope it all pans out.