Zack Snyder’s Justice League once ended with both the John Stewart Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter (Harry Lennix) revealing themselves to Batman (Ben Affleck) in the film’s epilogue, according to Lennix. Director Zack Snyder was the first to reveal Warner Bros. vetoed Stewart’s role in Justice League‘s Snyder Cut because of the studio’s plans for the character in a rebooted Green Lantern Corps, calling the appearance of the green-skinned alien shapeshifter a “compromise.” Now Lennix says the scene, where Bruce Wayne awakes from his Knightmare and is warned about the looming war with Darkseid (Ray Porter), was to include both the Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter:
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“All along I knew that I was going to be in it. It was going to be Martian Manhunter and John Stewart,” Lennix told the LightCast Podcast. “J’onn J’onzz and John Stewart, as it were, in the movie. But then they made him take out that part. So I did go in later, in like October, to do the scene with Ben Affleck. So I think that was the recipient, that is to say, the information that was conveyed in that scene, [Snyder] just had Martian Manhunter do it, which I thought was fun. He said something to the effect that he felt there was a good way to tie it up, the information that needs to be put out there is out there.”
He added, “We know that the Green Lantern will live on in another part of the franchise such as the DCEU. Hey man, I’m there to serve. It’s not uncommon where sometimes an actor has to fill in for another actor, it happens quite a bit.”
Lennix did not film with Affleck or the as-yet-unnamed actor who would have debuted as John Stewart because of health and safety protocols in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The actor, if memory serves … he was coming to Zack’s parking lot right after I was leaving,” Lennix recalled with a laugh. “We had to miss each other because of the Covid thing, but yeah, [we didn’t film] at the same time.”
Snyder mulled over yet another version of the scene: the filmmaker recently revealed he once considered introducing the John Stewart Lantern alongside Hal Jordan, played by Ryan Reynolds, who would reprise his ring-wearing superhero role for the first time since 2011’s Green Lantern.
“The truth is, I didn’t really get [far with that idea]. We never really talked, and there was a time when — and this was a while ago, where … my idea was there was gonna be a Green Lantern in the movie, and I’ll talk more about this in the future,” Snyder said in a recent interview. “But there was a Green Lantern in the movie … but then we started to kick around this idea like, ‘Maybe if we brought Ryan in there could be two Green Lanterns in the movie,’ sort of suggest a little bit more of the Corps kind of concept. But anyway, that’s the reality.”
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is now streaming on HBO Max.
