Denzel Washington is apparently being offered a lot of money to be in DC’s Batman/Superman movie, which is in no way a Justice League movie despite Wonder Woman being confirmed, Nightwing being rumored, and plenty of muttering about characters such as Martian Manhunter in the mix as well. But while the rumors have been pointing towards Lex Luthor, apparently there’s another front-runner: John Stewart. No, the Green Lantern, not the Daily Show guy.
This is of questionable provenance, we want to state. But nonetheless, here’s what Nuke The Fridge has to say on the matter:
According to our source, the “Training Day” actor is being considered for the role of Green Lantern John Stewart instead. If this proves to be true, Green Lantern will join an ever growing list of members from DC’s Justice League of America that also include Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
This is one of those situations where either way actually makes sense. After the complete disaster that was Green Lantern‘s theatrical release, it’s fairly safe to say that Hal Jordan’s been fed to Parallax as far as the Warner Brothers front office is concerned. And the entire idea is to turn every character in these movies into a massive, profitable franchise; putting a crowd-pleaser like Denzel into the mix would go a long way towards making audiences forget about Ryan Reynolds.
On the other hand, Denzel doesn’t come cheap, and he also has no reason to sign any three-movie contracts, so Lex Luthor would also be a logical fit; you only have to give him a paycheck for one movie, and maybe some cash here and there for cameos. It’d also be a lot better than Joaquim Phoenix, although the ideal scenario is WB gives up on the bald thing and just finally gives Alec Baldwin the role he’s been building towards all his life.
Either way, don’t be surprised if John Stewart shows up in this movie, even if it’s just for five seconds as a Marine showing great courage. Also don’t be surprised if Denzel turns out to be a rumor, after all.