Common on Green Lantern Casting & George Miller's Justice League Movie

Common began his music career in 1992 with the song 'Take it EZ', and has gone on to release eleven albums and won three Grammys and an Academy Award. It was over a decade later, in 2003, that he made his acting debut on an episode of the sitcom Girlfriends. His first movie role was in the crime film Smokin' Aces in 2006, and since then he has appeared in a number of crime and action films -- including American Gangster, Terminator Salvation, and John Wick: Chapter 2.

Common also has quite a bit of history with comic book-based movies. In 2008 he appeared in Wanted, based on a comic mini-series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones. In the film, Common played The Gunsmith, who trains accountant turned assassin Wesley Gibson (James MacAvoy) in marksmanship. And he recently has a small role in Suicide Squad as Monster T, one of The Joker's minions. But there was almost another role based on a DC Comics character in Common's past.

Back in 2007 George Miller -- the man behind the Mad Max franchise -- was working on Justice League Mortal which never ended up being filmed. He assembled an all-star cast as the various DC heroes, including Common as John Stewart, aka The Green Lantern. In a recent interview with Yahoo Movies, Common talked about his time with the movie that almost happened:

"Yeah, I was cast and we started rehearsals for the film. I went to Australia. I tried on the outfit and everything. It was heartbreaking, but it happened."

"The script was super-dope. It was intricate. And knowing George Miller was going to do it, you knew it was going to have that raw edge. But it had Superman, Aquaman, it had all of the characters really involved. Each one of them had moments and you got to know them. It was a strong piece."

Superman in this film would have been played by D.J. Controna (Skins) and Aquaman by Santiago Cabrera (Heroes). The movie was also supposed to have Armie Hammer (Nocturnal Animals) as Batman, Megan Gale (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Wonder Woman, Adam Brody (The O.C.) as The Flash, and Hugh Keays-Byrne (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Martian Manhunter. A very different cast than the upcoming Justice League film, and certainly a very different movie.

Common was also asked whether he thought he might get to play John Stewart some time in the future:

"I would love to, I’ll say that. That would be a blessing. That would be incredible to get the opportunity. But that’s up to the studio and DC and those guys to see who they feel is the right person. But it would be an incredible honor and I would be geeked for that character and that role. I would go to the highest with that role."

Since Common is already a part of the DC Extended Universe due to Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. might not want to cast him in another role. That being said, there has been some internet chatter about the character being brought to film or television sometime in the near future. For awhile there was speculation that John Diggle on Arrow might become the Green Lantern, before he took on the identity of Spartan. Now that The DC Expanded Universe is... expanding, Stewart would be a welcome addition to future films about The Justice League. And after a decade, it could be fun to see what Common does with the role.