In this new feature, exclusive to Revenge of The Fans, our Editor-in-Chief Mario-Francisco Robles will take a look at the hottest DC rumors on the net and help determine what to make of them. He’ll also occasionally add his own intel and insight into the mix, where applicable.

“DC DeClassified: Green Lantern, Batman, Aquaman, and Superman”

By Mario-Francisco Robles (@I_AM_MFR)

I’d like to start by apologizing to listeners of The Fanboy Podcast for not being able to come through with a new episode today. I try my best to get you one every Friday, but that proved to be too tricky to pull off this week because I literally just landed back home in NYC last night from a family trip to Puerto Rico. The good news is that next week’s show is set to be one of the biggest ever, so stay tuned for an exciting announcement about what you can expect to hear in Episode 69!

Hopefully what I’ve got to share with you today will help hold you over. And you’ll get to hear me sound off on general geek topics, alongside Vanessa Lee Bontea and Brett Miro, on The Revengers Podcast early next week. So there’s that.

But ok, enough idle chatter. Let’s dive on in!

Green Lantern: Who Was Almost Hal Jordan, and Who’s The Frontrunner Now?

I tweeted something out earlier this week while on vacation that, to me, was just a fun bit of trivia. Little did I know that it would become the subject of several articles written by other sites and the cause of quite a stir over on the twittuh.

Psst! Bochinche Alert: If Roven had his way, Marky Mark would’ve recited the oath. But his days of influence in the DCU are over, so that isn’t an option anymore.#GLC pic.twitter.com/tAiRibnZ6Z — Mario-F. Robles (@I_Am_MFR) August 14, 2018

To elaborate a bit, Charles Roven used to be one of the driving forces of DC on film. The producer has been attached to nearly every DC movie since 2005’s Batman Begins and, up until fairly recently, he was part of the collective of folks calling the shots for the current cinematic DC Universe.

I came into some intel earlier this week that suggests who Roven wanted to play the veteran Hal Jordan that likely would’ve been introduced in Justice League- Part 2 and then followed-up on in Green Lantern Corps, and that was 47 year-old Mark Walhberg.

The reason this is merely just some fun “What If?” trivia is because Roven is no longer in the picture and, for that matter, neither are most of the plans that DC Entertainment was working towards these last few years. Following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and throughout the production of Justice League, a ton of changes were made to the power structure over at DC, and Roven is one of many folks who are now on the outside looking in.

With Chuck gone, who does that leave as the current frontrunner?

Well, before we get into that, it’s important to understand what’s up with Green Lantern Corps. In June, it was announced that Geoff Johns was writing and producing the movie, but something that went unmentioned in that announcement is what that meant for David S. Goyer’s plans for the film. Something I’ve shared with my twitter followers is that Goyer’s script essentially got tossed when Johns took over.

But that doesn’t mean that some of the story elements won’t carry over. After all, Johns has been involved with the creative side of DC Entertainment- in evolving capacities- since mid-2016. That means he had a hand in Goyer’s plans that surfaced earlier this year. If you’ll recall, Goyer was said to be working on a story that was being compared to “Lethal Weapon in space,” which would’ve found an older Hal Jordan training a younger John Stewart. Deadline says the story came from Goyer and Johns.

So just because Goyer is gone, and whatever treatment he’d written is no longer in use, that doesn’t mean Johns is scrapping the core story. As for what the story would’ve entailed? I don’t know all of the details, but I’ve been informed that he wanted Hal to seemingly die, only to return as the supervillain Parallax, setting up a sequel that would ostensibly pit Hal against John.

It’s unclear how much of that plan is still in place, if any, but knowing this plan makes the next rumor make much more sense:

Crazy Days and Nights reported earlier this week that Tom Cruise is a frontrunner for the role of Hal, but that he wasn’t onboard with where the script was heading back in March. That was while Goyer was calling the shots and heading towards the Death and Rebirth of Hal Jordan as Parallax. Cruise was said to be less than thrilled with that idea, and would only do the movie if that got rewritten.

Enter Geoff Johns.

As stated earlier, Johns is reworking the story and rewriting the script from scratch, so- chances are- if he and the DC brass really want Cruise to star in the film, that he’s going to come up with a different arc for Hal. While I don’t know what he’s working on for Green Lantern Corps, and he’s only officially been the authority on the project since June, I am hearing that it’s true that Cruise is waiting in the wings.

This means whatever Johns has pitched him about the new version of the story must be enough to keep the superstar nibbling at the hook. Make of that what you will, but Cruise seems to be very much still in play.

And if you find it odd that the production would even be looking into casting anyone when there isn’t even a script in place (or a production slot for the film any sooner than fall of 2019), you should keep in mind that Cruise is typically very hands on with his films. He’s produced 20 movies over the last 22 years, and so he’s accustomed to being part of the process very early on.

Things could change, especially if the script doesn’t come along the way Cruise would like, but he is-indeed- in the mix at this point.