James Gunn recruited a familiar face to appear as Guy Gardner, aka Green Lantern, in the upcoming movie Superman: Legacy. He’s played Karja in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, but he also appeared in the cult classic show Firefly and fronted a show called Castle. Stumped? It’s none other than the beloved and very handsome Nathan Fillion (what, I can’t call another man handsome?).
The announcement of Fillion’s casting was initially reported by Vanity Fair. Along with the Green Lantern casting, Hawkgirl will be played by Isabela Merced (Transformers: The Last Night), and Edi Gathegi was tapped to portray Mister Terrific.
One of the more interesting casting choices is that Guy Gardner is not the most well-known or well-liked version of the character. That distinction belongs to Hal Jordan and then John Stewart.
It feels like Gunn would always go with Guy Gardner or one of the more esoteric Green Lanterns, like maybe an alien. Gunn loves humor, and Gardner has always been a punching bag in the comics, so it’s going to be a pretty easy way to shoehorn some jokes in there.
To Gunn’s credit, he has a way of taking less serious characters in the comics and giving them some real heft. Take Drax, for example. Drax is obviously an idiot, but Gunn made him a bit more serious in the movie.
All of the elements to make Garder a full-fledged character are there. He has a pretty complicated backstory involving an alcoholic father and some unfortunate accidents, including being transported to another dimension and getting brainwashed.
He was sometimes a bad guy and even led the evil Red Lantern Corps. He also committed tax fraud, which hey, isn’t cool. The idea of going with Gardner over Jordan shows that Gunn is more interested in potentially showing a more comedic Green Lantern than we’ve seen before.
Any way you shake it, excitement is building for Gunn’s take on Superman by the day. We’ll keep you posted.