Warning: This article has SPOILERS for the Justice League Snyder Cut.
A different green-themed hero was supposed to appear in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
The director has revealed that rather than Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern was going to play a major role in his cut of Justice League.
The Manhunter
While it was rumored for some time, Snyder’s cut of Justice League confirmed that General Swanwick (Harry Lennix) was actually J’onn J’onzz, aka the Martian Manhunter.
In the film, the Manhunter is first shown posing as Martha Kent to talk to Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and convince her to come back into the world. This leads to Lois being able to help the revived Superman.
The film’s final scene has the Manhunter, now in his full alien form, meeting Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck). The Manhunter explained he was tired of sitting on the sidelines and ready to help this newly formed League as a hero.
The DC Comics mainstay was a founding member of the Justice League and has kept going through almost every incarnation of the team. Thus, having him in the film was logical.
But Snyder revealed to Vanity Fair that he had pitched another original member of the League, Green Lantern instead of the Manhunter.
“We shot a version of this scene with Green Lantern, but the studio really fought me and said, ‘We really don’t want you to do Green Lantern. So I made a deal with them, and they let me do this [instead]. It would be John Stewart. 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.”
The Lanterns
John Stewart would have been an interesting addition. The former Marine became Green Lantern when Earth’s original GL, Hal Jordan, took a leave of absence.
Stewart worked with the League for several years and was featured in the hit 2000s Justice League animated series.
Green Lantern’s place in the movie might have been different. In a flashback sequence, an alien Green Lantern named Yalan Gur takes part in an epic battle against Darkseid.
Also, during a nightmare sequence, a fallen alien resembles popular alien Green Lantern Kilowog.
It’s possible that Stewart could have been chosen by the Corps during the film and then arrive to help the League at the end.
More interesting is that Snyder revealed he had hoped for Ryan Reynolds to show up as a Green Lantern but not Hal Jordan (who Reynolds played in 2011’s flop movie).
HBO Max is planning a Green Lantern Corps TV series that might feature Stewart alongside other Earth-based Lanterns Alan Scott and Jessica Cruz.
It’s another intriguing “what if” for the Snyder Cut to think Green Lantern, not the Martian Manhunter, would have made a huge debut in the DCEU under Snyder’s original plans.
Justice League the Snyder Cut now streaming on HBO Max.