Nathan Fillion joins Superman: Legacy as Green Lantern

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has a new mission: create a series of DC movies that make a lot of money and don’t embarrass people who go to watch them. His first big swing will be Superman: Legacy, a new movie about the Man of Steel starring relative unknown actor David Corenswet as Clark Kent.

But Legacy won’t just be about Superman; remember, Gunn is trying to launch a new cinematic universe here, so expect other heroes to show up. Now, thanks to Vanity Fair, we know about a few of the other characters who will be included: Isabela Merced will play Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi will be Mister Terrific, and Nathan Fillion will play the Green Lantern.

Hawkgirl and Mister Terrific are relatively obscure characters, so far as DC superheroes go. She flies around and whaps things with a mace, he’s a super-genius and skilled fighter. Fillion as the Green Lantern is the headliner here.

Nathan Fillion is Green Lantern Guy Gardner in Superman: Legacy

Technically, Fillion is playing a Green Lantern, not the Green Lantern: specifically, he’s Guy Gardner, one of many people to take up the mantle over the years.

The Green Lantern corps are basically an intergalactic police force who use power rings to manifest whatever they imagine. Ryan Reynolds played Hal Jordan, the original Green Lantern, in a 2011 movie that no one liked. Meanwhile, Max is working on a Green Lantern TV series revolving around John Stewart, another incarnation of the character, although it’s unclear if that show is moving forward now that Gunn and Peter Safran have taken over the DCU. It’s possible the show may not fit in with their vision, although we haven’t heard anything official.

As for Fillion, he’s been a mainstay of nerdy movies and TV shows for years, first breaking out as the lead on Firefly back in the early 2000s. He’s also a longtime collaborator of Gunn’s, having appeared in the director’s 2006 horror film Slither; he also had a minor role earlier this year in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, so the two have never stopped working together.

Fillion seems like a natural fit for a sci-fi police officer. My question is how big a role Guy Gardner and the other superhero characters will have in Superman: Legacy. Like, is this a movie about the Man of Steel first and foremost, or is it about Superman’s place in the wider DCU? We’ll find out when Superman: Legacy hits theaters on July 11, 2025.

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