As the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) comes to a close with the recently released Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, fans are eagerly looking ahead to James Gunn and Peter Safran’s ground-up reboot of the comic book property, which will be simply titled the DC Universe (DCU).
While this new universe, whose first chapter (equivalent to what the MCU calls a “phase”) technically begins with the adult animated series Creature Commandos, which is very James Gunn indeed, the production that will truly launch the universe is 2025’s Superman: Legacy, written, produced, and directed by Gunn, and starring David Corenswet as the iconic hero.
As is ever the case with a James Gunn superhero flick, the movie will feature an intriguing array of B-list characters that include Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), The Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría), and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), though Superman mainstays Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), Loise Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) will also feature prominently. Perhaps the most notable of the supporting cast, though, is none other than Guy Gardner, a prominent member of the Green Lantern Corps making his live-action film debut, and he will be played by Albertan actor Nathan Fillion.
Gunn is a filmmaker who makes a point of repeatedly working with actors he knows and trusts, famously maintaining a “no a-holes” policy on his productions, and he and Fillion go way back to his directorial debut, the woefully underrated comedy horror Slither, while more recently they teamed up in The Suicide Squad. Choosing Guy Gardner, of all Green Lanterns, to appear in Superman: Legacy is intriguing in and of itself (he’s quite a divisive character), but what’s more interesting again is that Fillion has been fan-cast as another Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, for years, which seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream, especially after the disaster that was the Ryan Reynolds-led Green Lantern in 2011, though he was at least cast to voice the character in the animated film The Amazing Spider-Man 3.
This is absolutely a cliché, but Fillion just has one of those faces. He does. And as such, fans frequently called for his casting in superhero roles, though he was also a hugely popular choice to play Nathan Drake in an adaptation of the acclaimed video game series Uncharted, not least because of his uncanny resemblance to the character, but also because of his acting style, which usually injects his inherent relatability and charisma into a wise-cracking smart-ass.
While there will likely be a variation of this in his performance as Guy Gardner, it is quite easy to believe that cast Gunn is not only casting a trusted collaborator in an important role, but he is also roguishly winking at fans by finally casting him as a Green Lantern after well over a decade of petitions and passionate pleas…but just not as the Lantern everyone was thinking of.
Still, I am a huge fan of this choice, and while some bemoan the fact that he won’t be playing Hal Jordan as they had hoped, it is also important to remember that Gunn is concerned, first and foremost, with story and characterization, unwilling to make choices that he feels are to the detriment of either, which includes choosing the right characters to feature in his films. It is very likely that Hal Jordan’s brand of Lantern was not the right fit for Guy Gardner’s role in Superman: Legacy, but offering him the role all the same is the closest he could get to delivering what the fans want; something he is mighty good at.
Superman: Legacy is currently slated for release in July 2025, with filming set to begin in March this year.