News and rumors about the 2020 Green Lantern Corps movie have slowed down in the past month and with Warner Brothers focusing squarely on the release of Wonder Woman and Justice League it’s fair to say that we likely aren’t going to get any announcements soon about the GL film that would distract the public from those two highly anticipated movies. Now that the dust has settled it seems like a good time to summarize what little is known for certain at this point and how it fits with some of the rumors that have been circulating for months.
The script and release date
Deadline exclusively reported in January that David Goyer and Justin Rhodes are collaborating on a script for Green Lantern Corps, based on a story by Goyer and Geoff Johns. Goyer is set to be the film’s producer with Geoff Johns being one of the executive producers. The script will focus on Hal Jordan and John Stewart with a Lethal Weapon feel. What exactly Deadline means is unknown and many have taken this description quite literally including the age differential between Murtaugh and Riggs. As someone who pitched this idea a little over three years ago my own take was purely on the dynamic between partners, one rule breaker and one by the book type and in my own opinion Warner Brothers would be better served showing both characters in their prime rather than age one of them.
An interesting point in the Deadline article is their use of the phrase that the studio is “moving aggressively” with the film. This dovetails nicely with a report from Digital Spy which reported on comments from a reporter from Variety that, with the DCEU slate of films being pushed back, the studio included Green Lantern Corps in a short list of films that may move up the batting order to keep the DCEU moving ahead. With that in mind, casting becomes a priority.
Casting
Many people, myself included, bought into the notion of Chris Pine taking on the Hal Jordan role. For me it was how much Pine’s version of Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek films is taken from the Hal Jordan mold. But Pine has gone on record as saying he isn’t really interested in the superhero movie genre beyond his role as Steve Trevor in this summer’s Wonder Woman.
January’s report from The Wrap indicated that WB internally had a list of six actors they have in mind for Hal Jordan. While the article indicated that were no talks going on with any of the actors, fans have been weighing in on two names in particular: Ryan Reynolds and Armie Hammer. We Got This Covered, in corroborating the story, added actor James Marsden to that list.
Hammer has gone to the extent of teasing fans on the Internet about the role, as has his former Man From U.N.C.L.E. co-star, Henry Cavill. When Hammer and Geoff Johns followed each other on Twitter it created quite a buzz and seems to point to Hammer playing some sort of role in the DCEU.
Things are much quieter with regards to the casting of John Stewart. Both Andre Gordon and Tyrese Gibson have used social media to connect their names with the role, but no reliable media outlet has yet to come forward with anything beyond speculation and actor’s online efforts to promote themselves for the role.
The Justice League factor
Sources: Deadline, Digital Spy, Cosmic Book News, The Wrap, Sports Betting Dime, We Got This Covered