Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” cut gave him the opportunity to add back in many of his ideas and plot points that were taken out of the theatrical version. But one big one that got left out of his HBO Max cut was Green Lantern, so this weekend he and actor Wayne T. Carr shared some behind-the-scenes pics of the John Stewart incarnation of the famed DC hero.
Snyder’s picture showed him with a small film team gathered around Carr on a makeshift green screen set in a driveway with Carr wearing a suit designed to be turned into the full Green Lantern outfit via CGI. Carr provided a closer look at that suit on Twitter with a picture of him between takes.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Snyder explained that Green Lantern was cut out of his version of the film at the request of Warner Bros., which had its own plans for the superhero. So instead of Stewart, DC fans got a surprise cameo from the Martian Manhunter, who was revealed to be disguised as General Calvin Swanwick during the events of the film.
“They were like, ‘We have plans for John Stewart and we want to do our own announcement.’ So I said all right, I’ll give you that. So [Martian Manhunter] was the compromise,” he said.
DC Films currently has two Green Lantern projects in development. One is an upcoming HBO Max series that will see Finn Wittrock take up the Green Lantern’s ring…but as Guy Gardner, a hot-blooded former football player who has fought Hal Jordan in the comics over who is the “true” Green Lantern.
News of Wittrock’s casting led to uproar among DC fans and sent John Stewart trending as fans demanded that the first live-action version of the Black superhero. But another HBO Max project centered around the Green Lantern Corps and with Stewart as the main protagonist has also long been in development.