During the Dawn of Justice DC Films Special shown Tuesday on the CW, Geoff Johns, Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment, was asked by Kevin Smith to reveal an exclusive just for the show. Johns gave information about the upcoming 2020 Green Lantern Corps film while showing images of comic pictures with motion effects. The video can be seen below:

The video certainly focuses on John Stewart and Hal Jordan, but all the main Earth Green Lanterns are shown, minus Alan Scott. I don’t know if that means anything, though, as the others are only seen in group shots in the background. The video definitely gets across that John and Hal are the focus. Disturbingly, the most attention is given to Hal Jordan. These images are nothing new. They’re taken from DC comic books that have been shown previously. No new concept art for the film is shown, so these pictures may not mean much, but there is definitely conscious intent to show that this will be a Hal Jordan and John Stewart film, which goes hand in hand with recent rumors that suggested the same thing.

That’s ultimately disappointing to me, because I think the film should be about John Stewart and the alien members of the Corps. I’m personally not interested in Hal Jordan, he isn’t a box office draw, and he has the baggage of headlining one of the biggest film stinkers yet. While I realize it could be a risky move, I really would have liked to see a black lead character take the undisputed spotlight in a major superhero film without being chaperoned by a white male. But, there you have it…

This is speculation on my part, but I believe John Stewart was inevitable, and people like Geoff Johns pulled every trick in the book to weasel Hal Jordan into the film under the reasoning of pleasing everybody. It’s no secret that Hal Jordan has very powerful supporters in the halls of DC Comics, who wouldn’t take kindly to him being left out of the film. Geoff Johns has said something to the effect before about believing in having all the Green Lanterns during his Green Lantern comic book run. Yet, he proceeded to ignore John Stewart while pushing Hal Jordan to the highest possible pedestal, so that was all just talk. He was alright with having the other Lanterns around so long as they played support to Hal Jordan.

What I’m saying is that I would actually expect someone like Geoff Johns to fight tooth and nail to get Hal Jordan in the film. Seeing as I don’t trust Geoff Johns AT ALL with the Green Lantern franchise, especially after his involvement in the 2011 film, here’s hoping he has absolutely nothing to do with this future film’s actual production.

Let me be clear about this right now and I hope someone in the WB offices reads this. If WB is going to attempt to do something like “War of the Green Lanterns,” a Geoff Johns comic event that utilizes all of the Earth Green Lanterns, yet squarely puts Hal Jordan as the lead, I have no interest in seeing that. If WB wants to please John Stewart’s real fans, following Geoff Johns templates will fail spectacularly. I’m a real John Stewart fan, I know John Stewart fans, I know how they think, I know what they want, and believe me, it is not that.

As to the other Green Lantern characters, it would be folly of DC to clutter their cinematic universe with the glut of Earth Green Lanterns that are in the comic universe. In movies, especially, there’s only so much focus to go around, and there’s really no room for characters like Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner. Besides that, it’s conceptually stupid to have that many Lanterns from Earth. The comics are stuck with them now because they have dedicated fanbases, but the films shouldn’t fall into that pit hole.

Also, John Stewart should be the focus of the film, especially since Hal Jordan had a shot in 2011 and blew it. John should be the character with the main arc. It’s bad enough Jordan is there at all, but John should definitely not be behind him, lingering in the background as an asexual bootlicking wallflower, which is how many comics during Geoff Johns’ tenure displayed him.

Many sources have said that Geoff Johns confirmed that the Green Lanterns will be coming to the Justice League film in 2017. However, that’s not what Geoff Johns says in the video. He said that they will be coming to the Justice League universe, which, to me, sounds like the DC Cinematic Universe in general, and we already knew this, as a Green Lantern Corps movie was announced for 2020.

In short, the John Stewart/Hal Jordan buddy film is confirmed. Concerning the other Lantern characters, it isn’t clear if they will play any role, but this video consciously focuses on John Stewart and Hal Jordan. Stay tuned for more news!

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