After WarnerMedia answered fan demands to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, DC devotees are calling on HBO Max to #ReleaseTheGreenLanternScene cut from the ending of Zack Snyder's Justice League. Filmmaker Zack Snyder was the first to reveal Warner Bros. blocked a Green Lantern from appearing in the epilogue of the Snyder Cut, where it's a lone Martian Manhunter (Harry Lennix) who joins forces with Batman (Ben Affleck). Lennix later revealed original plans for the scene had the shape-shifting alien approaching Bruce Wayne with a Green Lantern — actor Wayne T. Carr's John Stewart in his live-action debut — but the ring-wielding space cop was removed because of the studio's existing plans for a rebooted Green Lantern Corps.
Carr revealed the first behind-the-scenes look at his John Stewart — filmed in Snyder's driveway during additional photography on his four-hour, R-rated director's cut of Justice League — prompting fans to take to social media in the hopes Carr's deleted scene might see the Green Lantern's light of day.
"The studio had told me I wasn't allowed to shoot anything. That there would be no filming of any kind. During production, that was a thing they insisted on. And I shot stuff anyway, of course, in my yard. And one of the things I shot was the Green Lantern scene," Snyder previously told Esquire. "And then they asked me when they saw the movie and saw that I put it in there, they'd take it out. And I said that I would quit if they tried to take it out. And I felt bad. The truth is I didn't want the fans to not have a movie, just based on that one stand that I was going to take."
"The Green Lantern was John Stewart. And that was part of it too," Snyder added. "I was like, I don't want to take a person of color out of this movie. I'm not going to do it. But I felt like having Harry Lennix's Martian Manhunter at the end was, that was okay."
Lennix's reveal that the Snyder Cut has a cut scene featuring a second fan-favorite DC hero, and artist Jojo Aguilar's subsequently released concept art showing Carr's John Stewart in his black-and-green-glowing glory, helped spark the #ReleaseTheGreenLanternScene movement. The trending topic on Twitter is just part of the support that has come Carr's way since it was revealed he was supposed to be the Green Lantern in Justice League:
"When I saw the full vision, I went through the journey like everybody went through the journey. Towards the end, I realized, 'Ugh. I'm not a part of this. Darn,'" Carr told the LightCast podcast. "The thing that kind of just warmed my heart was once all of the concept art and stuff started to drop, it's been nothing but love from the fans, man. Like, I wasn't even in the movie, and I'm just getting positive feedback from people and support. It's super crazy. It's absolutely crazy, but I love it."