| The Green Hornet | |
|---|---|
.JPG) Van Williams as the Green Hornet. | |
| Publication information | |
| First appearance | The Green Hornetradio program (January 31, 1936) |
| Created by | George W. Trendle Fran Striker |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Britt Reid |
| Partnerships | Kato |
| Abilities | |
TheGreen Hornet is asuperhero created in 1936 byGeorge W. Trendle andFran Striker, with input from radio directorJames Jewell.
Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media. The Green Hornet appeared infilm serials in the 1940s,The Green Hornet television series in the 1960s, (which costarredBruce Lee in his first adult role), multiple comic book series from the 1940s onwards,[1] anda film in 2011.
The franchise is owned by Green Hornet, Inc., which licenses the property across a wide variety of media that includes comics, films, TV shows, radio and books. As of the 2010s, the comic-book rights are licensed toDynamite Entertainment.[2]
Though various incarnations sometimes change details, in most versions the Green Hornet is the alter ego ofBritt Reid (/riːd/), the wealthy young publisher of theDaily Sentinel newspaper. By night, clad in a long green overcoat, gloves, green fedora hat and green mask, Reid fights crime as the mysterious vigilante known as "The Green Hornet". He is accompanied by his loyal and similarly masked partner and confidant,Kato, who drives their technologically advanced car, the "Black Beauty". Though both the police and the general public believe the Hornet to be a wanted criminal, Reid uses that perception to help him infiltrate the underworld, leaving behind for the police the criminals and any incriminating evidence he has found.
In the original radio incarnation, Britt Reid is the son of Dan Reid Jr., the nephew of theLone Ranger (whose first name is never given, contrary to later articles), making the Green Hornet the great-nephew of the Ranger. The relationship is alluded to at least once in the radio shows, when Dan Reid visits his son to question him on why Britt has never captured the Hornet. On learning the truth behind his son's dual identity, Dan Reid recalls his days riding with his uncle, as theWilliam Tell Overture plays briefly and softly in the background.
The character debuted inThe Green Hornet, an Americanradio program that premiered on January 31, 1936, onWXYZ, the same localDetroit station that originated its companion showsThe Lone Ranger andChallenge of the Yukon.[3] Beginning on April 12, 1938, the station supplied the series to theMutual Broadcasting System radio network, and then toNBC Blue and its successors, theBlue Network andABC, from November 16, 1939, through September 8, 1950. It returned from September 10 to December 5, 1952.[3] It was sponsored byGeneral Mills from January to August 1948, and byOrange Crush in its brief 1952 run.[3]
The Green Hornet was adapted into twomovie serials, 1940'sThe Green Hornet and, in 1941,The Green Hornet Strikes Again![4] Disliking the treatmentRepublic gaveThe Lone Ranger intwo serials,George W. Trendle took his property toUniversal Pictures, and was much happier with the results. The first serial, titled simplyThe Green Hornet (1940), starsGordon Jones in the title role, albeit dubbed by original radio HornetAl Hodge whenever the hero's mask was in place, whileThe Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941) starsWarren Hull.Keye Luke, who played the "Number One Son" in theCharlie Chan films, plays Kato in both. Also starring in both serials areAnne Nagel as Lenore Case, Britt Reid's secretary, andWade Boteler as Mike Axford, a reporter for theDaily Sentinel, the newspaper that Reid owns and publishes.Ford Beebe directed both serials, partnered byRay Taylor onThe Green Hornet andJohn Rawlins onThe Green Hornet Strikes Again!, withGeorge H. Plympton andBasil Dickey contributing to the screenplays for both serials.The Green Hornet runs for 13 chapters whileThe Green Hornet Strikes Again! has 15 installments, with the Hornet and Kato smashing a different racket in each chapter. In each serial, they are all linked to a single major crime syndicate which is itself put out of business in the finale, while the radio program had the various rackets completely independent of each other.
A 10-minute 2006 Frenchshort film titledLe frelon vert is based on the Green Hornet.[5]
A film version of the character had been contemplated since the 1990s, withUniversal Pictures andMiramax each attempting to develop a film. Sony Pictures announced plans for a feature film of the superhero in 2008. Eventually,Sony Pictures, through its subsidiaryColumbia Pictures, released an action-comedy Green Hornet feature on January 14, 2011, starringJay Chou andSeth Rogen, who co-wrote the script withSuperbad co-writerEvan Goldberg.[6] It was directed byMichel Gondry.Jay Chou co-starred as Kato. Also starring wereCameron Diaz as Lenore Case,Edward James Olmos as Mike Axford,David Harbour as Frank Scanlon,Christoph Waltz as the main villain Benjamin Chudnofsky, andTom Wilkinson as James Reid.
In 2016,Paramount Pictures andChernin Entertainment acquired the rights to The Green Hornet and started preliminary work on developing a reboot withGavin O'Connor as producer and director of the film andSean O'Keefe as writer.[7] In 2020,Amasia Entertainment gained the rights of the Green Hornet[8] and officially teamed withUniversal Pictures for the reboot titledGreen Hornet and Kato withDavid Koepp writing the script.[9][10] On June 23, 2022, Deadline reported thatLeigh Whannell will direct the reboot.[11]
The Green Hornet is a television series shown on theABC U.S. television network. It aired for the 1966–1967 television season and starsVan Williams as both the Green Hornet and Britt Reid, andBruce Lee asKato.[12][13] With his insistence on using his martial arts skills, Bruce Lee stole the show as Kato. This was the first time Asian martial arts fighting was seen on American TV. The show launched Bruce Lee's career as a popular actor in the US as well as inHong Kong. Audience interest even led to Van Williams asking to learn some martial art moves.[14]
Williams and Lee's Green Hornet and Kato appear as anti-heroes in the second season of theBatman TV series in the two-part episode "A Piece of the Action" / "Batman's Satisfaction". The episode ended with Batman himself questioning whether or not the Green Hornet was really a criminal. Unlike the "campy" version ofBatman, this version ofThe Green Hornet was played more seriously.
In July 2020,Kevin Smith andWildBrain announced plans to develop aGreen Hornet animated series set in the present day and focused on a reimagined Green Hornet and female Kato.[15] On February 28, 2023, Smith confirmed in an episode ofFatman Beyond that the series would be 10 episodes.[16]
Green Hornetcomic books began in December 1940. The series, titledGreen Hornet Comics published byHelnit Comics with the writing attributed toFran Striker, being illustrated by Bert Whitman Associates.[17] The stories were loosely based on episodes of the radio show. This series ended after six issues.[18]
Several months later,Harvey Comics launched its own version, beginning with issue #7. This series lasted until issue #47 in 1949; during that time it also changed its title twice: first toGreen Hornet Fights Crime (issue #34) and later toGreen Hornet, Racket Buster (issue #44).
Harvey additionally used the character in the public-service one-shotWar Victory Comics in 1942,[19] and gave him one adventure in each of two issues ofAll-New Comics, #13 (where he was also featured on the cover)[20] and #14,[21] in 1946.
In 1953, several months after the radio series ended,Dell Comics published a one-shot with the character (officially entitledFour Color #496).[22] Both stories therein share titles with late-era radio episodes ("The Freightyard Robberies", June 23, 1949; and "[The] Proof of Treason", October 17, 1952) and might be adaptations.
In 1967,Gold Key Comics produced a 3-issue series based on the TV show.[23]
In 1989,NOW Comics introduced a line of Green Hornet comics, initially written byRon Fortier and illustrated byJeff Butler. It attempted to reconcile the different versions of the character into a multigenerational epic. This took into account the character's ancestral connection toThe Lone Ranger, though due to the legal separation of the two properties, his mask covered his entire face (as in theRepublicserials) and he could not be called by name.[24] In this interpretation, the Britt of the radio series had fought crime as the Hornet in the 1930s and 1940s before retiring. In NOW's first story, inGreen Hornet #1 (November 1989), set in 1945, the nationality of the originalKato (named in this comic series Ikano Kato) is given as Japanese, but because of the American policy regarding the Japanese minority during World War II, Reid referred to Kato as Filipino in order to prevent Kato's being sent to an American internment camp.
The NOW comics considered the 1960s television character as the namesake nephew of the original, 1930s–1940s Britt Reid, referred to as "Britt Reid II" in the genealogy, who took up his uncle's mantle after a friend is assassinated. Britt Reid II eventually retired due to a heart attack, and Kato—given the first name Hayashi, after that of the first actor to play Kato on radio—goes on to become a star of ninja movies. The NOW comics established Hayashi Kato as Ikano Kato's son. Britt Reid's nephew, Paul Reid, a concert pianist, takes on the role of the Hornet after his older brother Alan, who had first taken on the mantle, is killed on his debut mission. Paul Reid is assisted by Mishi Kato, Hayashi's much-younger half-sister who was trained by Ikano Kato. Her being female caused problems between the publishers and the rights-holders, who withdrew approval of that character and mandated the return of "the Bruce Lee Kato".[25] After Mishi's departure—explained as orders from her father to replace an injured automobile designer at theZürich, Switzerland, facility of the family corporation, Nippon Today—Hayashi Kato returned to crime fighting alongside the Paul Reid Green Hornet.[26] Mishi Kato returned in volume two as the Crimson Wasp, following the death of her Swiss police-officer fiancé, on orders of a criminal leader. In NOW's final two issues, vol. 2, #39–40, a fourth Kato—Kono Kato, grandson of Ikano and nephew of Hayashi and Mishi—took over as Paul Reid's fellow masked vigilante. The comics also introduced Diana Reid, the original Britt Reid's daughter, who had become district attorney after the TV series' Frank Scanlon had retired. A romantic relationship eventually formed between her and Hayashi Kato.
NOW's first series began in 1989 and lasted 14 issues. Volume Two began in 1991 and lasted 40 issues, ending in 1995 when the publisher went out of business. Kato starred solo in a four-issue miniseries in 1991, and a two-issue follow-up in 1992, both written byMike Baron. He also wrote a third, first announced as a two-issue miniseries, then as a graphic novel, but it was never released due to the company's collapse.[citation needed]
Tales of the Green Hornet, consisting of nine issues spread out over three volumes (two, four, and three issues, respectively), presented stories of the two previous Hornets. Volume One featured Green Hornet II, and its story was plotted byVan Williams, star of the 1960s TV series, and scripted byBob Ingersoll. The follow-ups were written byJames Van Hise. Other miniseries included the three-issueThe Green Hornet: Solitary Sentinel; the four-issueSting of the Green Hornet, set duringWorld War II andClint McElroy's three-issueDark Tomorrow (June–August 1993), featuring a criminal Green Hornet in 2080 being fought by the Kato of that era.[27][28]
Discounting depictions of the cars utilized by the 1940s and 1960s Hornets, there were two versions of the Black Beauty used in the NOW comic series. The first was based on thePontiac Banshee.[29] The second was a four-door sedan based on theeleventh-generation Oldsmobile 98 Touring Sedan.[citation needed]
In March 2009,Dynamite Entertainment acquired the license to produceGreen Hornet comic books.[30] Its first release was a miniseries written byKevin Smith with pencils by Jonathan Lau.[31][32] Revamped in 2010 as an ongoing series set in modern times, the newGreen Hornet stars Britt Reid Jr., the rebellious and spoiled son of Britt Reid Sr., now a retired industrial and family man. When Britt Sr. is slain by the Black Hornet, a yakuza mobster whose family was shamed by the original Green Hornet, the aging but still fit Kato returns. With his daughter, Mulan Kato, who has taken over the costumed identity of her father, he brings Britt Jr. to China for training and safekeeping as he becomes the new Green Hornet. Writer Jai Nitz also wroteGreen Hornet: Parallel Lives, aminiseries prequel to the2011 Green Hornet feature film.[33]
In 2013, an eight-issue miniseries calledMasks brought together famous heroes from the pulp era. It starredThe Shadow, The Green Hornet and Kato,The Spider and a 1930s descendant ofZorro. It was written byChris Roberson with art byAlex Ross andDennis Calero.[34]
Kevin Smith andRalph Garman wrote a crossover title,Batman '66 meets the Green Hornet, released in June 2014.[35][full citation needed]
A crossover withMiss Fury was announced in August 2024.
In a 2018 series written byAmy Chu, Mulan Kato becomes the Green Hornet after Britt Reid Jr. mysteriously disappears.
In 1939, theBell Syndicate proposed aThe Green Hornet comic strip, written by Fran Striker and illustrated by Bert Withman, but the project did not please George Trendle and was canceled.[17]
In 2018, the Green Hornet appeared in newspaper strips as a guest-star inDick Tracy byMike Curtis (script) andJoe Staton (art), continuing the trend of Tracy stories reviving characters from defunct strips.[36][37]
Western Publishing subsidiary Whitman Books released four works of text fiction based on the character, targeting younger readers. There were three entries in the children's line of profusely illustratedBig Little Books,The Green Hornet Strikes!,The Green Hornet Returns, andThe Green Hornet Cracks Down, in 1940, 1941 and 1942, respectively, all attributed toFran Striker. In 1966, their line for older juveniles includedGreen Hornet: Case of the Disappearing Doctor by Brandon Keith, a tie-in to the television series. At about the same time,Dell Publishing released a mass-market paperback,The Green Hornet in The Infernal Light byEd Friend, not only derived from the small-screen production as well, but, "allegedly based on one of the TV episodes".[38]
In 2009,Moonstone Books gained the prose license and has released three Green Hornet anthologies as part of its "Chronicles" line:The Green Hornet Chronicles,The Green Hornet Casefiles, andThe Green Hornet: Still at Large.[citation needed]
The Green Hornet and Kato appears inThe Green Hornet: Wheels of Justice (2010) foriPhone, based on the film.[39]
Few examples ofGreen Hornet merchandise have appeared since the 1960s. To coincide with the 2011 movie, Factory Entertainment produced six-inch action figures and a die cast Black Beauty, among other collectibles.[citation needed] Hollywood Collectibles has made a full-size prop gas gun replica.[citation needed] Mezco Toyz has made a set of 12-inch action figures, with the prototypes donated to theMuseum of the Moving Image.[40]
CKE Restaurants, Inc., the parent company of Carl's Jr. andHardee's, teamed with the studio on a promotional marketing partnership that included commercials featuring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou in character as the Green Hornet and Kato; a beverage promotion withDr. Pepper;The Green Hornet food items, kids' meal toys, and employee uniforms; and a contest with the grand prize of the Black Beauty car from the film.[41]
In 2012, Factory Entertainment released screen accurate replicas of the Hornet Sting, Gas Gun, and Kato's Dart from the 1960's television series. A plaque signed by Van Williams was included in a limited run of "Signature Edition" replicas.[citation needed]
In June 2018, the toy companyFunko released a Funko Pop figure of the Green Hornet as a Specialty Series figure.[citation needed] This was later followed up with multiple Funko Pop figures of the Green Hornet and Kato, released as exclusives atSan Diego Comic-Con andNew York Comic Con.[42] In January 2020, Funko announced Green Hornet and Kato figures as part of their initial SODA vinyl figure offerings with a limited run of 6000 each.[43]
In late 2021,Diamond Select Toys announced the start of a new line of Green Hornet and Kato collectible merchandise in partnership with The Green Hornet Inc. and the Bruce Lee Family.[44] Their line of collectibles include a mini bust of Kato and various action figures of Kato in different outfits.[45]
In 2022,Aurora Plastics Corporation, under their Polar Lights brand, reissued a model of the Black Beauty car from the 1960's television series.[citation needed]Aluminum Model Toys released their own model kit of the Black Beauty in the same year.[citation needed]
 | This sectionmay containirrelevant references topopular culture. Please helpimprove it by removing such content and addingcitations toreliable,independent sources.(November 2023) |
The American Heritage Center holds the papers of William Dozier, who produced and narrated the TV series The Green Hornet, as well as the Batman TV series.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
