The Green Lantern Corps movie remains in a developmental stage but the emerald space cops already have a place in the DC Extended Universe. Since Zack Snyder's Man of Steel established what has now become a sprawling shared universe, Green Lantern and his accompanying mythology were carefully seeded from the start. Therefore, when Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and the rest of the intergalactic corps of ring-slingers formally arrive, they'll find their place at the table has already been set.

Currently, the next Green Lantern film is being penned by Geoff Johns, who has indicated his new script will "celebrate the mythology and reinvent it in a different way." This seems to indicate Johns' film will take a different approach from the failed 2011 Green Lantern that starred Ryan Reynolds. That movie hewed very closely to the acclaimed run of DC Comics masterminded by Johns, which introduced all of the classic tropes like the planet OA, the Guardians of the Universe, the fallen Lantern Sinestro, and the evil Parallax. The upcoming reboot is sure to glance with these aspects, but perhaps it may also borrow from the more "hard sci-fi" edge of the recent Green Lantern: Earth One graphic novel.

This is just the latest attempt to bring Green Lantern to the DCEU. A previous version was described as a "buddy cop" movie for Hal Jordan and John Stewart, and actors ranging from Mark Wahlberg to Tom Cruise at various stages. At the moment, there's no casting movement, but that doesn't mean Green Lantern is far off from being a part of the DCEU. In fact, whenever the Corps arrive, they should slot right in thanks to some nifty setup for a space-faring army of Emerald Gladiators.

Man of Steel Made The DCEU Cosmic From The Start

MAN OF STEEL

By beginning the DCEU with Superman, the films properly launched a universe. Superman is, of course, an alien and the fact that he is a strange visitor from another planet is the source of much of the conflict in the DC movies. As is traditional, the opening of Man of Steel took place on Krypton, establishing the race of beings who gain godlike powers when exposed to the light of Earth's yellow sun. Later in the film, as Clark Kent learns about his heritage from a hologram of his birth father Jor-El (Russell Crowe), he discovers that the Kryptonians were a space-faring race that spent centuries seeding and terraforming planets with massive devices called World Engines.

Though the Kryptonian race is now extinct outside of Superman, the villains he trapped in the Phantom Zone and possibly Supergirl, they brought their civil war to Earth and devastated Metropolis and other parts of the world in the process. However, only Superman fought the rogue Kryptonians; no Green Lantern aided the Man of Steel. Nevertheless, aliens are now a fact of life in the DCEU. For a while, Superman himself was a mistrusted symbol of controversy; he was so feared by Batman (Ben Affleck) that the Dark Knight plotted to kill the Man of Steel in Batman v Superman. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) began studying and cataloging the rise of superhuman beings on Earth and became aware of an even greater alien threat, the New Gods of Apokolips, who would eventually invade in Justice League.

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While the name "Green Lantern" is never uttered in Man of Steel or Batman v Superman, all of this points to the DCEU as a vast cosmos teeming with worlds that need protecting from evil menaces that definitely exist, especially since Superman and the Justice League are only focused on defending the Earth.

Carol Ferris Debuted in Man of Steel

Green Lantern Reference Carol Farris in Man of Steel

There were no Lanterns in the movie, but Man of Steel still dropped a big Green Lantern Easter egg by introducing United States Air Force Major Carrie Farris (Christina Wren), who was the aide of General Calvin Swanwick (Harry Lennix). Farris also briefly appeared in Batman v Superman. The name "Carrie Farris" is a rework of Carol Ferris, the classic love interest of Hal Jordan who also becomes Star Sapphire, one of Green Lantern's enemies. In the 2011 Green Lantern, Carol was portrayed by Blake Lively, and was the heir to the Ferris Aircraft corporation as well as being a fighter pilot herself.

Though Carrie Farris has no obvious relation to Carol Ferris or Hal Jordan outside of her name being a subtle allusion, it indicates that Zack Snyder was at least thinking about Green Lantern in the early stages of plotting out the DCEU.

Page 2: Justice League Showed An Ancient Green Lantern

Wonder Woman Introduced The Magical Side of The DCEU

Continuing the efforts of Snyder's films, Wonder Woman wove magic and the Greek gods into the fabric of the DCEU. Princess Diana of Themyscira is a demigod whose father was Zeus, and her destiny was to be the god-killer who would vanquish Ares (David Thewlis), which she achieved during the First World War. Wonder Woman's Amazonian history not only intersects with Green Lantern during Steppenwolf's first invasion in Justice League, but it could also tie into it in a different way.

The original Green Lantern in the Golden Age comics of the 1940s was a hero named Alan Scott, who wore a mystical Power Ring that derived its energy from an ancient green flame, as opposed to the alien technology of the Green Lantern Corps. Though there's been no mention of any of this in the DCEU, the foundation of magic (which also greatly factors into Shazam!) now exists for Geoff Johns', who also penned a popular run of comics about Alan Scott and the Justice Society of America, to weave the mythology of the Golden Age emerald warrior into his reinvention of the Green Lantern Corps.

Justice League Showed An Ancient Green Lantern

Justice League Green Lantern Yalan Gur

Although Steppenwolf did gloats "no Lanterns" in the Justice League trailer, the words "Green Lantern was never actually said in the film (likely due to the major edit changes). However, Justice League did show a Green Lantern, albeit one who fought for Earth in the distant past. As Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) explained to Batman, five thousand years ago, the Parademon armies of Steppenwolf attacked the Earth, with the Apokoliptian general planning to use three Mother Boxes to create the Unity and terraform Earth into another fiery hellscape like his own homeworld. Steppenwolf was defeated by the combined forces of the Atlanteans, the Amazons, the armies of Man, the Greek gods, and also, a Green Lantern. This Emerald Gladiator was Yalan Gur, who was the protector of Space Sector 2814 (which contains Earth). Sadly, Gur was killed by Steppenwolf during the battle and his Power Ring was seen escaping to seek out a new wearer.

Yalan Gur in Justice League clearly established that Green Lanterns exist in the DCEU - or at least they did millennia ago. There was have been no mentions or sightings of Green Lanterns since. Fans can infer that Earth no longer has a Green Lantern protecting it since none appeared to fight off the two most recent invasions by Krypton and Apokolips. Steppenwolf himself was more concerned with Superman than he was that a Lantern might show up to stop him a second time.

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However, there was a scrapped Justice League post-credits scene planned early on that would show popular Green Lanterns Kilowog and Tomar-Re meeting Bruce Wayne. Instead, it was replaced in the final film by the scene with Lex Luthor and Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) forming the Legion of Doom.

Next: Casting Green Lantern Corps For The DCEU

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