Lanterns ended its first season by receiving rave reviews and a solid viewership for HBO, but Kyle Chandler wasn’t the first choice to play OG Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. Josh Brolin was up for the role, but the actor rejected it, and he has now revealed why he chose not to play Hal Jordan in the DC Universe (DCU). Brolin said that the offer might have come too close to the cancellation of his last show, Outer Range, after only two seasons. That show was cancelled partially because it was receiving less promotion from Prime Video, which clearly would result in lower viewership totals.
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In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Brolin said he rejected Lanterns because “I don’t know, maybe it was too close [to Outer Range]. I really loved Outer Range, and seeing what those actors — Tom Pelphrey, Lewis Pullman, Imogen Poots — have done since then makes me very happy. To me, it’s a great middle finger to those people who canceled that show. It’s like, ‘You had gold.’ So that’s how I perceive it.”
Josh Brolin Is Better Off Not Joining the DCU
Outer Range was a science-fiction neo-Western television series that saw Brolin star as a Wyoming rancher fighting for his land and family after finding a mysterious black void in his pasture. The first season had eight episodes and was released over four weeks in 2022. The second season had only seven episodes, all dropped at once in 2024. While the first season had a 79% Rotten Tomatoes score, the second had a 92%, despite low viewership totals, since Prime Video had apparently lost confidence in it and never promoted it. That soured Brolin on TV.
However, Brolin said that he has seen Lanterns and loved it. He said he loves the actors in the show, and he hopes “that it’s killing it.” While he didn’t mention his replacement, Kyle Chandler, he did say that different actors can make characters very different. Brolin said he was up for the Birdman role that Edward Norton played, and the two characters would have been strikingly different. He also said Matt Damon was supposed to be in Milk before Brolin got the role, and that also would have been a different version of the character. How Hal Jordan would have changed with Brolin will remain an unanswered question.
That said, it is likely better that Brolin did not join the DCU, especially since there are plenty of fans who want him back in the MCU. There are rumors he could pop up in Avengers: Secret Wars as Thanos again, if only for a cameo. There are also people who want to see Brolin return as Cable, who he played in Deadpool 2. Seeing Cable back, whether in a Deadpool movie or with the upcoming X-Men, would be very exciting, and Brolin could easily slide back into that role. Besides, the last time Brolin was in a DC project was Jonah Hex, and that remains one of the biggest missteps in comic book movie history.
What do you think Hal Jordan would have looked like in Lanterns if Josh Brolin had taken on the role? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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IMAGE COURTEYS OF MARVEL TV
