Superman: Legacy: What Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner Could Mean For the Justice League International

The pieces are beginning to fall into place for Superman: Legacy, which is being heralded as the first film in James Gunn and Peter Safran's new DC Universe. Superman: Legacy got its biggest update yet on Tuesday with news that Clark Kent / Superman (David Corenswet) will be far from the only superhero in the film, with Isabela Merced cast as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi cast as Mister Terrific, and Nathan Fillion cast as Guy Gardner / Green Lantern. The latter cast has arguably made the most waves online, between Gunn and Fillion's history of previous collaborations, and genuine surprise over the actor being tapped to play a Green Lantern, after years of being fancast as Hal Jordan.

While it's unclear exactly how prominently Guy Gardner will factor into Legacy, Gunn has confirmed that Fillion will portray the character in whatever subsequent stories involve him in the DCU. That raises the question of what those stories could entail — and in particular, what that could possibly mean for the Justice League International.

Who Are DC's Justice League International?

Created by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire, the Justice League International rose up in the aftermath of the Legends event in 1987. In the absence of most of the previous League mainstays (outside of Batman, Black Canary, and Manhunter), the team was occupied by lesser-known but beloved heroes. This included Guy Gardner, as well as Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Mister Miracle, Guy Gardner, and Big Barda. Fire and Ice later joined the team, and are now regarded to be the team's most famous female members.

Over the course of their initial tenure, the JLI participate in a number of globe-trotting missions, fall victim to a get-rich-quick scheme, and gain a number of new team members. The team has still lived on in years since under a number of aliases, most recently appearing in Tom King and Greg Smallwood's Human Target miniseries.

Will the Justice League International Be in the DCU?

At the time of this writing, there is absolutely no indication that a Justice League International project is in the works at DC Studios, much less that the team could already be established in the DCU. But that doesn't mean they couldn't appear — after all, Gunn himself has already confirmed that Superman will come to be in a world where superheroes already exist, meaning any components of older DC history could conceivably be folded into the canon. Depending on how old Fillion's Guy Gardner is portrayed in the DCU, it's not impossible to imagine him having been a part of the JLI roster previously. With a Booster Gold Max-exclusive series already announced for the DCU slate, and the Blue Beetle movie dropping pretty clear ties to fellow JLI member Ted Kord / Blue Beetle, Guy would be far from the only team member who is already in the franchise's orbit.

Granted, the only thing getting in the way might be the actual name "Justice League International", especially depending on how Gunn and Safran eventually want to establish the new DCU's Justice League. Maybe the JLI did actually use that name at a prior time, or maybe they went under another moniker altogether. Either way, folding the JLI's history into the DCU could be an inspired choice — and the casting of Fillion could very well help usher that in.

Do you want to see the Justice League International in the new DCU? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Superman: Legacy is set to debut exclusively in theaters on July 11, 2025.