Green Lantern Movie Casting Heralds More Unified DC Universe Onscreen

Written by: Tony Lazlo, CC2K Staff Writer

The Green Lantern movie is taking shape as Jackie Earle Haley joins the cast as the Lucifer of the corps.

Ain't It Cool News reports that Haley will play signature Green Lantern nemesis Sinestro in the new movie, which will star Ryan Reynolds in the title role.

For the uninitiated, Sinestro qualifies as the Lucifer of this particular set of pop-cultural myths because Sinestro starts out as the greatest of the Green Lantern Corps. Soldier, only to fall victim to his own corruption and turn to the dark side – or in the case of the comic books, the yellow side.

AICN also reports that the Green Lantern movie will feature a cameo by Superman. Such a cameo would mark a major change for DC Comics in how it presents its heroes on the silver screen.

Marvel comics fans will note that the most recent spate of Marvel movies have been integrated events that feature multiple coordinated cameos by different characters. All of the movies are leading up to a larger Avengers movie that will feature Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor.

By contrast, DC Comics has marketed its superhero movies as hermetically sealed packages. Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight would never feature a cameo by any of the other DC heroes, not only for stylistic reasons, but also because Nolan himself said he set his movie in an alternate universe. Bryan Singer's Superman Returns mined the imagery of the original Richard Donner and Richard Lester movies, going so far as to position itself as the defacto third chapter in the series.

All this is well and good, but it occasionally saps some fun from the experience. The CW TV series Smallville has never been able to feature Bruce Wayne as a character, and we've never seen Batman and Superman onscreen together in a big-budget scenario.

That's too bad, because the fans would love it. I know I would. Look no further than Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever – a guilty pleasure experience that nonetheless includes one undeniable stand-up-and-cheer moment: When Bruce Wayne casually refers to Metropolis.

We may never get a full-on Superman-Batman teamup onscreen, but a Superman cameo in the Green Lantern movie would be a good first step toward a more integrated DC movie universe.

In the meantime, enjoy this video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVzL0GVeyIM