2011’s Green Lantern was a major disappointment, and now Warner Bros. has put the character in time-out for almost a decade with the reboot not coming along until 2020.  While I expect the character will make an appearance before then (probably in either Justice League Part One or Part Two), the studio might be taking a radical and welcome approach when it comes to his solo movie.

What We’re Hearing

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Image via DC Comics

Keep in mind that the movie is still in early development and a lot of things can change, but we’re hearing that the new Green Lantern movie will focus on more than one human Green Lantern. There are plenty of “Green Lanterns” across the universe, as they’re an intergalactic police force who wield powerful rings whose energy is derived from their user’s willpower. Their only weakness is the yellow energy of fear.

The most popular Green Lantern is Hal Jordan, who was the main character in the 2011 movie. However, Guy Gardner and John Stewart later followed Jordan, and they weren’t the last in the comics. But we’re hearing  possibly two or all three—Jordan, Stewart, and Gardner—could be the leads of Warner Bros’ Green Lantern reboot.

Furthermore, the franchise will continue to focus on different Green Lanterns and never on just one, so really the Green Lantern movies look like they’ll be more about the Green Lantern Corps, which is an interesting approach.

But before we get there, the plan is just to focus on these two or three human Green Lanterns, and there’s a real possibility that Warner Bros. will introduce the Green Lanterns at Comic-Con this year at their panel in Hall H on Saturday.  And if WB does bring on multiple Green Lanterns, then presumably one or more of them will pop up in Justice League.

Read below to learn a bit more about the triumvirate of Green Lanterns that might lead the reboot.

Hal Jordan

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Image via Alex Ross

[All information on the comics’ history of these Green Lanterns is taken from Wikipedia; I will not pretend like I’m a Green Lantern expert.]

Hal Jordan was a test pilot who was chosen by Green Lantern Corps member Abin Sur, whose spaceship crashed on Earth.  Abin Sur was dying and used his ring to seek out someone who was "utterly honest and born without fear", and it landed on Jordan.  Jordan received Abin Sur’s power ring as well as the battery (the green lantern) that powered it.  It turned out there were also two backup candidates on Earth—Guy Gardner and John Stewart.

Jordan has had a rough go of it in the DC Universe.  He was taken over by the alien Parallax, a creature of pure fear that broke free of its imprisonment in the Central Power Battery and grafted itself onto Jordan’s soul.  Jordan then proceeded to cause a ruckus in the DC Universe, killing some Green Lanterns before he finally was able to use his willpower to break free of Parallax’s hold.

For those who remember the 2011 movie, Parallax was one of the villains, and looked like a shit cloud with a face made of yellow lightning.

Guy Gardner

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Image via DC Comics

Gardner was one of Jordan’s backups, but a power battery blew up in his face, and put him in a coma.  He was later revived and when the Guardians—an alien race on the planet Oa who oversee the Green Lantern Corps—broke up into factions, he was chosen as one of their champions.  Per Wikipedia, “As a result of his years in a coma, Guy was very emotionally unstable, although he still mostly managed to fight valiantly. He has gone through many changes, including wielding Sinestro's yellow Guardian power ring, then gaining and losing Vuldarian powers, and readmission to the Corps during Green Lantern: Rebirth.”

John Stewart

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Image via DC Comics

Jordan’s other backup was an architect from Detroit who was called into action when Guy Gardner went into a coma (it’s no fun being the backup of a backup, but when you’re called off the bench, you go play).  However, he was directly chosen by the Guardians instead of being chosen by the Power Ring like Jordan and Gardner.  This tied into a prophecy that led to Stewart becoming the Guardian of the Universe.  However, he lost his powers when Jordan became Parallax and went on a rampage.  Additionally, Stewart has been paralyzed from the waist down a couple of times and regained his ability to walk (comics!), and eventually received a new ring from Earth’s latest Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner.

Stewart’s life is repeatedly marked by his relationship to women.  He married his Green Lantern trainer, Katma Tui, who was later murdered by Star Sapphire.  He then fell in love with Rose, a farmer from West Virginia who was trapped on Oa.  Then he used those aforementioned Guardian of the Universe powers to bring back his deceased wife, which led him to break up with Rose.  But then crazy Hal Jordan offed Katma Tui again, and Stewart went crazy for a while.  Then in the New 52 continuity (for fuck’s sake, DC), he had a romantic relationship with longtime enemy Fatality, who had become a Star Sapphire by that point.  Oh, but it turns out Fatality was an imposter, Varrat Din, an alien from Durian. And if that wasn’t enough, in the excellent Justice League Unlimited, he had a love triangle with Hawkgirl and Vixen.

John Stewart’s convoluted love life requires its own set of movies, and I assume it won’t be a focal point if Warner Bros. goes forward with this “multiple Green Lanterns” plan.

Speculation

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Image via DC Comics

So where do intergalactic space cops fit in with the DC Cinematic Universe’s more “grounded” take on superheroes?  It actually shouldn’t be much of a problem.  Man of Steel, the launching point for the DCCU takes place on an alien world for the first 20 minutes, so there’s no reason that aspect can’t return for future movies.  Warner Bros. can leave the gritty realism back on Earth and go for something more sci-fi and fantastical if they go to other planets but they keep their serious approach intact.

If this big Green Lantern plan is true, how early will we see him/them?  I doubt Warner Bros. will wait until 2020 to introduce Green Lantern(s), especially since they’re already cramming Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Flash into Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  I’ve heard speculation that the way Justice League will go down is that Part One will feature our heroes dealing with an Earth-based threat, and then at the end, Green Lantern will fly in and alert them to an intergalactic menace (most likely Darkseid) for Part Two.

But as I said before, this is all in the distant future, and Warner Bros. still seems to be struggling with what to do for Wonder Woman and Aquaman, which are due to open in 2017 and 2018, respectively.  Green Lantern isn’t the most pressing concern in terms of chronology, but it’s a big deal in how Warner Bros. can launch a franchise that’s drastically different than anything else they have going in the DCCU.

So what do you think about putting more than one Green Lantern into the Green Lantern reboot?  Who would you cast in these roles? Sound off in the comments.