Prior to its record-setting opening weekend, Wonder Woman debuted a new DC Movie intro - hinting Green Lantern could make an appearance in 2017's Justice League film. Wonder Woman, isn't just the solo movie debut of Gal Gadot's titular superhero - it also features the brand new intro for DC Films, which contains a plethora of characters that have yet to be seen on screen as a part of the DC Extended Universe. While the background is full of dozens of characters of varying degrees of visibility, seven of them get prominently featured up front - the seven founding members of the Justice League. Interestingly, only six of those first seven have been confirmed for the first Justice League movie: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg. The seventh, however, has yet to see a DCEU debut: Green Lantern - specifically, the Hal Jordan version.
It’s been known for some time that a Green Lantern Corps movie is in the works, so the presence of several Green Lanterns in the intro isn’t surprising - although it’d be surprising if anyone predicted Mogo the Living Planet to be featured in the new intro - but the focus on Green Lantern as one of the primary members does lend a little credence to a long-held popular theory that a Green Lantern will appear in Justice League.
Related: Justice League Reportedly Features Green Lantern Appearance
While the intro is just an intro and could be nothing more than a nod to the comics, there are several clear similarities to the DCEU as we already know it. First is the inspiration behind most of the character appearances that - while animated - take clear direction from their live-action counterparts - particularly Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Cyborg.
Second, the characters that are primarily featured are the same ones we already know will be in Justice League with Green Lantern bringing up the rear as the odd man out, while Martian Manhunter - who is also frequently depicted as a founding members in the comics - is off to the side, if he’s even in it at all. Until there’s an HD copy released, there will be quite a bit of speculation about which characters are featured outside the main seven and a handful of others.
If Green Lantern truly weren’t appearing in the DCEU until 2020 - or whenever Green Lantern Corps finally arrives in theaters - then one would expect Warner Bros. to not shine a light on him alongside the other Justice League characters, instead featuring him on the sidelines with the other Lanterns and Martian Manhunter.
The question is, what kind of appearance could Green Lantern truly get while remaining entirely a secret throughout all of Justice League's production? Batman’s Suicide Squad appearance was widely known before release because of set photos, for example, while The Flash’s presence was only rumored until release. The same goes for Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman in Batman v Superman, all of whom were on screen for only a few seconds.
A Green Lantern appearance would almost certainly be only very brief (they're certainly not hiding a main character this well), possibly only arriving as a cliffhanger at the end to warn of a bigger threat, if not a post-credit scene - although Zack Snyder (and the DCEU aside from Suicide Squad) has shied away from using the latter.
There’s also a matter of casting. With the way news travels, the slightest hint of an actor playing Green Lantern in Justice League would be well known at this point, as evidenced by the hullabaloo surrounding Dan Amboyer before Batman v Superman, during which quite a few fans began to speculate that he was going to be the Emerald Guardian. In the end, Amoyer's character was cut entirely from the theatrical version, only appearing on screen for a split second in the Ultimate Cut. It’s incredibly difficult for actors to be involved in such a highly-anticipated movie, even in tiny parts, without that involvement becoming public knowledge.
Whoever is actually playing Hal Jordan would more than likely be someone of reasonable star power, meaning the persistent Armie Hammer teasing, by both Hammer himself and Henry Cavill, is more than just a tease. Dwayne Johnson’s recommendation for him as Shazam could also be a fake out.
Keeping a Green Lantern casting, not to mention a debut for the character in Justice League, would be next to impossible to keep secret. But with Dwayne Johnson teasing that his Black Adam could show up before most people expect, it’s entirely possible Warner Bros. could be putting effort into concealing a few major reveals. After all, Wonder Woman's marketing avoided showing Ares entirely before release, and Superman has also been absent from most Justice League marketing.
While that’s not a whole lot of hard information to go off of, it does show that Hal Jordan will be a major player in the DCEU and DC/WB aren’t averse to going to keeping major character reveals under wraps, and if Ares, Superman, and possibly Black Adam deserve that treatment, then so does Hal Jordan.
