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How A Mark Wahlberg Green Lantern Fit in Snyder's Justice League Plans
Recent rumors have indicated Mark Wahlberg could have been the DC Extended Universe's Green Lantern, but where would he have fit into Zack Snyder's original plan? Justice League already introduced 6 members of the DCEU's version of the team, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg, but the seventh, and traditional founding member, Green Lantern, has been elusive thus far.
There's been a lot of talk about an eventual Green Lantern introduction, but with a solo film release date that has always been much later than the rest of the members of the League, Hal Jordan has been entirely absent, even though the universe is already populated with Green Lantern lore, from Major Carrie Farris, his comic book love interest, to an ancient Green Lantern.
Now that we know Wahlberg was in consideration, there's a number of new question marks. Where would he have been introduced and what would his role be? There's nothing official to go off of (even his consideration for the role is merely a rumor, although it holds some ground as he posted an image on Instagram suggesting some kind of DCEU connection), but we've learned a fair amount about Zack Snyder's original plan for his 5 part DCEU story, so we can form some educated speculation about the what the plans could have been for Mark Wahlberg's Green Lantern in the DCEU.
Mark Wahlberg Was (Allegedly) Wanted For Green Lantern Years Ago
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Green Lantern may not have materialized in the first few movies of the DCEU, other than a nod to an ancient Lantern during Justice League's history lesson, but plans were being made to properly introduce him into the universe. At the time, a Green Lantern movie was already on the slate, but with a number of other characters getting their introductions in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or Justice League before their own solo film, it seemed to make sense that Green Lantern would also appear before his, and that an introduction of that sorts was certainly in the cards.
A couple of Green Lantern casting rumors have surfaced recently, with Tom Cruise's name being bandied about (again), but the more surprising name was Mark Wahlberg. While the latter is no longer in contention, he was the top pick of producer Charles Roven when Zack Synder was still fulfilling his 4-movie (originally 5-movie) Superman arc.
Zack Snyder is no longer as actively involved in the DC Extended Universe, and Roven's participation seems to have also taken a smaller role as well - although both are still producers on Wonder Woman 1984 - and the in-development Green Lantern Corps. plans have been scrapped with a complete rewrite by Green Lantern legend and former DC President Geoff Johns, so it's safe to say Wahlberg's name isn't being bandied around anymore (like Cruise's is), although he would 't be as bad of a choice as many people have assumed.
Marky Mark tends to get a lot of eye rolls due to some sketchy off-screen behavior in his past and a portfolio of roles that range from big-budget blockbusters to dramas to stoner comedies. He's drawn acclaim for roles like the mouthy hard-as-nails Sergeant Dignam in The Departed or Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell in Lone Survivor, but also brought the laughs in movies like The Other Guys (where he was also a cop), giving an indication of the range they might have been going for when casting Hal Jordan, a tough-as-nails cop with a sense of humor. Although, as many fans have pointed out, he could also be a better fit for Guy Gardener.
In the fallout of Justice League, there's been a number of rumors about what was actually supposed to be in the movie, and with additional rumors coming out, such as Wahlberg being approached for Green Lantern, it can be hard to keep straight what was actually cut out of Snyder's version of Justice League.
While it doesn't sound like the Wahlberg-as-Hal-Jordan idea evolved past Charles Roven wanting him for the role, he wasn't being seriously considered for Justice League and would have shown up in Justice League 2 at the earliest.
During promotion for Batman v Superman, producer Charles Roven revealed the plans for Green Lantern were to possibly introduce him in Justice League 2 at the earliest, with the possibility of him staying off the table until his solo movie, which was scheduled for 2020 at the time.
Of course, with most of Snyder's post-Batman v Superman plans being scrapped, all bets are off. With no team-up movies on the horizon, Hal Jordan's introduction makes the most sense in his own solo movie, which currently doesn't have a release date.
There was a rumored Green Lantern tease planned for Justice League's post-credits, but if that was ever even considered, it was abandoned early on and didn't include Hal Jordan anyway.
How Would Mark Wahlberg's Green Lantern Fit in Snyder's Justice League 2?
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Speculation about how Green Lantern would be introduced has been going around since before Batman v Superman, and while there's very little to go off of for Justice League 2, with what we do know about the original plan, we can get a pretty good idea of how a Green Lantern would fit in.
While the focus of the DCEU has been mostly on Earth, a small corner of the cosmic side was the very first thing explored at the beginning of Man of Steel, so there's no need to introduce the world to the idea of advanced civilizations living outside of Earth, making the notion of a Green Lantern much easier to explain.
Justice League's theatrical cut didn't talk much about the cosmic side of things, with the history lesson coming the closest to explaining the Apokaliptian origin of Steppenwolf and the parademons, but the Snyder Cut would have taken this much further, going as far as to introduce Darkseid himself.
While the Lord of Apokolips wasn't going to be the primary antagonist in Justice League, he was going to be set-up for Justice League 2, which appears to have been taking its biggest cues from Grant Morrison's Final Crisis event where he uses the Anti-Life Equation (which was supposed to play a bigger part in Justice League) to enslave the human race.
In Justice League, Wonder Woman and the Amazons provide an Earth-bound ancient history of Steppenwolf and the Mother Boxes, but bringing in Darkseid requires a whole other cosmic half be explained, and that sounds like the perfect job for Green Lantern.
We know Zack Snyder and writer Chris Terrio wanted to give these characters and story a mythical quality, drawing from classic inspiration like the Greek gods, Arthurian legend, or Shakesperian drama like Hamlet, so, with Darkseid on his way to invade Earth, and much of his cosmic origins remaining a mystery, it only makes sense for the story to include a harbinger to prepare the Justice Lague for Darkseid's assault.
As both a human from Earth, and a member of the Green Lantern Corps, responsible for the Earth and sector 2814 (if they stick to that level of comic detail), it only makes sense that Hal Jordan would fill the role of the harbinger.
It's not clear how developed these ideas were before Snyder's plans were scrapped. Roven's remarks about plans for Green Lantern in Justice League 2 were just a few weeks before the release of Batman v Superman, meaning they were only a few months before shooting started on Justice League, and Green Lantern wasn't even guaranteed for Justice League 2 at that point, so we're still talking about a concept that was likely merely in early infancy.
There are a million "what if" scenarios with the DCEU, which is part of the reason talk of things like the Snyder Cut or Snyder's original 5 movie plan can be so interesting, and while the notion of a Mark Wahlberg as Hal Jordan harbinger of doom to warn the League about Darkseid is an interesting idea, with all the struggles Snyder had to get audiences on-board with his vision, it's doubtful this decision would have been one to win over the masses. However, with Tom Cruises' name continually bandied about for Hal Jordan, it seems the DCEU's bold-but-controversial casting decisions are hardly a thing of the past.
Release Dates:
- Aquaman (2018) release date: Dec 21, 2018
- Shazam! (2019) release date: Apr 05, 2019
- Wonder Woman 2 (2019) release date: Nov 01, 2019
- Joker (2019) release date: Oct 04, 2019
