HBO‘s Lanterns may have liked Josh Brolin for the role of Hal Jordan, but they will not be putting a ring on it. The No Country for Old Men star has passed on the offer for the lead role in the new DC Comics series. The Hollywood Reporter has the news that Brolin turned down the role last weekend. It was previously reported that Brolin was eyeing the series, but now it’s back to the drawing board for the ring-slinging comics adaptation.
The series will focus on the Green Lantern Corps, a spacefaring peacekeeping and law-enforcement organization whose members all wear cosmic-powered rings that can create energy constructs limited only by their wielders’ imaginations. The series is set to be a two-hander, with two human Green Lanterns; the experienced Hal Jordan will reluctantly mentor newcomer John Stewart as they attempt to solve a cosmic mystery in the heart of America. Chris Mundy, a veteran of True Detective and Ozark, will executive produce and showrun the series, which was picked up for an eight-episode order earlier this year; Damon Lindelof, who produced HBO‘s Watchmen, and Tom King, a comics writer with notable runs on The Vision, Supergirl, and Mister Miracle, will also executive produce the series.
Who Is Hal Jordan?
Created in 1959’s Showcase #22 by writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane at the dawn of the Silver Age of Comic Books, Hal Jordan was a test pilot who stumbled across a dying alien, Abin Sur, who passed along his power ring and membership in the Green Lantern Corps. With his new power, Jordan became a superhero both on Earth and in space; he was also one of the founding members of the Justice League of America. Although Earth has had a number of other Green Lanterns, Jordan is the most enduring of them and is frequently featured in that role in film and TV adaptations of the character.
Unfortunately, his sole venture to the big screen was in 2011’s ill-fated Green Lantern, which starred Ryan Reynolds as Jordan; its failure to excite the critics or audiences doomed what Warner Bros. hoped would be a cornerstone of their own cinematic universe. Jordan won’t be the first Green Lantern in the new James Gunn-driven DC films, however; that honor will go to Guy Gardner, who will be played by Nathan Fillion in next year’s Superman.
Brolin is no stranger to comic-book-based roles; he starred as DC Comics Western antihero Jonah Hex in a poorly received movie adaptation, then as Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (starting with Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy) and as Cable in Deadpool 2. He can next be seen in Wake Up Dead Man, Rian Johnson‘s latest Benoit Blanc murder mystery, and in Weapons, the new horror film from Barbarian’s Zach Cregger.
Lanterns is in pre-production; no release date has yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates. You can watch Brolin‘s previous turn in a superhero franchise now on Disney+.
via Collider