Grammy Nominee Tyrese Hints At 'Green Lantern' Reboot Casting

There are countless reasons to account for the failure of DC Comics' 2011 attempt to bring mainstay character Green Lantern to life on the big screen — the bad writing, the bad effects, the total miscasting of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan… honestly, countless reasons. 

If there's any positive takeaway from that film, however (which — wow, it's only been four years?), it's that it's landed us with the possibility of another shot at getting it right in the form of DC's impending 2020 reboot of the franchise and, already, things are looking way up on the previous go-around.

Firstly, there's the news that Tyrese Gibson — aka Tyrese, Grammy-nominated R&B singer-songwriter and occasional actor, who you probably recognise as Roman from the Fast & Furious franchise — has all but confirmed that he'll be coming on-board the film as Green Lantern John Stewart, using fan-made images and recent interview opportunities to heavily, heavily hint that he's going to be involved in the film.

As Slash Film reports (via E!), Tyrese has been bandying about some pretty strong language regarding the Green Lantern reboot of late, including a direct reference to lore: "I took the Oath," he told E!, referring to the words recited by Green Lantern on accepting responsibility for his Power Ring.

"I had a meeting at Warner Bros. and certain things were said and talked about … You know, listen, there are certain things I can't speak on. But I will say that, however way this works out, it's definitely the fans' fault. I was at home minding my own business and fans start creating these fan-made videos of me as Green Lantern and I looked into it. I've been a fan of the Green Lantern."

Check out the pics below from Tyrese's Instagram — note "#TheOath has been taken...", again — with him mocked up as John Stewart and Star Trek poster-boy Chris Pine apparently stepping into the role of Hal Jordan, which backs up other rumblings on the grapevine regarding the next Green Lantern feature.

If you're not sure why this casting news is potentially such a big deal, a brief history lesson: DC loves legacy characters, and Green Lantern — who is actually one of several thousand intergalactic police officers who operates as part of the Green Lantern Corps — has had several individuals hold the mantle for Sector 2814 (i.e. Earth and surrounding suburbs), including original Silver Age Lantern Hal Jordan (who we saw in Reynolds' film, and actually followed on from an unrelated Golden Age character of the same name, whose powers are magic), replacement Guy Gardner (memorable for being punched out by Batman), his replacement John Stewart, and Stewart's replacement Kyle Rayner, not to mention 2010s canon addition Simon Baz.

The reason that Stewart stands out as most people's preferred Lantern, at least in vocal fan circles, is twofold: (a) he is incredibly significant, socially speaking, being DC's first of-colour superhero (though still introduced a few years after Marvel's Black Panther), and (b) he was the most high-profile Lantern of the late '90s and early 2000s due to his role in WB's animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series — and then he got the shaft for the feature film because DC's creative director Geoff Johns has an unending boner for the Silver Age, not to mention bringing back old, dead characters like Jordan and Barry Allen.

It might have worked out well in Allen's case, but Jordan has been a harder sell, especially because his successors were all so much more interesting than he is — so we're keeping our fingers crossed that Stewart at least joins the Corps, if not takes the central role.

Green Lantern isn't due till 2020, but with several Justice League-related films in the pipeline before then, starting with the upcoming Batman Vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice, we might see some flying green men back on the big screen sooner than we think.

Either way, we can be sure of one thing: It's probably not gonna be Guy Gardner.