When we last saw Diggle, aka John Stewart, aka The Green Lantern’s best friend, he had just been chosen by the Green Lantern Corps to serve as the newest defender of the earth. Or at least, that is what everyone thought happened when Arrow came to an end last year. It turns out that whatever glowing green thing was in the box he found, he decided that he wanted no part of it. In a new CWverse crossover event, Ramsey will be back to explore the ramifications of turning down your destiny. Ramsey recently sat down with TVLINE to talk about his return to the CW and what we can expect from the new storyline.
“To your other point, which is exploring what has happened to Diggle since encountering that green box, that will be explored in the other episodes – on Batwoman, Flash, Superman & Lois, and Supergirl. Whatever was in the box, he refused the invitation of. Let’s put it like that. But there are consequences to that.”
“After Crisis, he got back his wife, who was abducted by the Monitor, and he got back his daughter Sara, who was taken out of existence by Flashpoint. So part of Diggle’s story is that the last thing he would want to do right now is receive an invitation from something otherworldly, because he finally has his family back, and he lost his best friend to some otherworldliness,” he continued. “So he refused the invitation of whatever was in the box, but there are consequences to that, and that story, what he will do next, is part of what we tell throughout these four episodes.”
“No, we don’t get into that,” Ramsey confessed. “This is a very, very, very preliminary [look at] what happens from this refusal, and what it means to his destiny. We simply get into the preliminary physical effects of his refusal of whatever it was in that box.”
If you were looking for the real reason behind this unexpected turn for a character most fans were expecting to see take up the mantle of Green Lantern, you can look to HBO Max. They are currently prepping multiple TV series based around the Lantern Corps, at least one of which is being run by former Arrow showrunner and Arrowverse architect, Greg Berlanti. It wouldn’t make sense to start introducing two universes of the character at essentially the same time.