James Gunn isn’t messing around. The co-head of DC Studios has a plan to tighten up the loose ends and present a DC Universe that is consistent across all mediums. That means the same actor who plays a hero in a film will also play the hero in video games and TV shows. It’s a nice idea, and one that harkens back to the early days of the MCU.
Several cast members have been added to Gunn’s upcoming reboot Superman: Legacy, and they make it clear that the writer-director is going to use the film to lay the groundwork for the rest of the DC Universe. Isabela Merced will play Hawkgirl, and Edi Gathegi will introduce Mister Terrific, according to Vanity Fair. The announcement that has turned the most heads, though, is the casting of Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner.
It did so, for two reasons. Firstly, Fillion is an asset to any franchise he joins, and fans of Gunn’s are, by association, fans of the actor. And secondly, the character of Guy Gardner was previously set to be played by a different actor. Finn Wittrock was cast as Gardner when it was announced that HBO would be making a Green Lantern series in 2021. The show hit a roadblock, however, when Warner Bros. began to make personnel changes.
The Hollywood Reporter discovered that Wittrock still wasn’t signed on to Green Lantern in 2022, and the series was forced into redevelopment after showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith decided to quit. Grahame-Smith had already completed scripts for eight episodes, which Wittrock referred to as “great” during an Instagram Q&A. Green Lantern hasn’t been officially scrapped, but the casting of Fillion suggests that Wittrock has been.
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Gunn was asked about Wittrock during a recent Threads exchange, and he made it clear that Fillion is going to be the only version of Gardner that the DC Universe will need. “The Green Lanterns show is not separate; Nate will play Guy in all parts of the DCU.” The fact that Gunn refers to the aforementioned HBO series leads us to believe that Fillion will be the star (whenever it gets released).
The decision to cast Fillion should come as no surprise to Gunn fans. The two men are close friends, and Fillion has appeared in every single film that Gunn has directed except one. He filmed a scene for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017), but it wound up being cut from the finished version. Knowing that fans would ask about Fillion’s absence, Gunn took to Facebook to explain the cut and praise the actor.
“As many of you know, one of my best friends in the world is Nathan Fillion,” he wrote. “Along with Michael Rooker and Gregg Henry he’s been in every movie I’ve directed – even as a monstrous, perverted voice in Guardians of the Galaxy… Unfortunately, the small section of the scene where [he] appeared slowed down [Vol. 2] and I had to cut the Easter eggs from the film.”
While it’s unfortunate that Wittrock got the boot, we’re excited to see what Fillion and Gunn can do with the character of Guy Gardner over the next few years.