El Mayimbe of Latino Review is letting loose with one of his trademarked juicy rumors, and today’s flavor has a distinctly Pine-y taste. According to the site, Chris Pine is rumored to don some emerald Underoos for the still forming DC cinematic universe.
Pine was actually one of the actors considered for the original stab at Green Lantern back in 2011. While that movie isn’t beloved, it isn’t the facemelting disaster most people make it out to be. The biggest problem the film does have is Ryan Reynolds, who was woefully miscast for the role of Hal Jordan. You have to figure that, if this rumor is true, the DC brass are sticking with the Hal Jordan iteration of the character. That’s a bit of a bummer since everyone was sure that the John Stewart version was going to get the go ahead. We’ve had Common and Tyrese Gibson expressing a strong interest in playing Green Lantern, with Gibson going so far as to post Photoshopped pics of himself as the character. Gotta love that kind of Vin Diesel-y self-promotion.
I really like Chris Pine (even though he stars in the worst Star Trek thing ever made), and his attempt to headline his own franchise didn’t work out with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Someone will say that Star Trek fulfills this desire, but that has always been more of an ensemble piece. It is true that Green Lantern will show up in Justice League: Mid-Afternoon of Doom before spinning off on his own, but that’s just the way this universe is going to work itself out.
My two cents on what should be done with Green Lantern: go fully alien with it. The Green Lantern Corps is enormous, and you have characters like Katma Tui or Ch’p (though that would seem too obvious a riff on Rocket Raccoon). Why limit yourself to another human player, especially if the Martian Manhunter isn’t going to be part of this group? As always, the opinions of our Chewers are welcome in the comments and forums.
Also, if they really want this new Green Lantern film to be a blockbuster, they should cast our venerable leader: