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Zack Snyder’s Justice League allowed the director to finally realize his original vision for the 2017 team-up movie. While the film restores just about all of the plot points Snyder wanted to cover, there’s at least one person he wasn’t able to include. The character in question is John Stewart, who comic book fans know as a Green Lantern. The fan-favorite hero was meant to appear to Bruce Wayne during the film’s closing moments, but Harry Lennix’s Martian Manhunter ultimately appeared in his place. Now, Snyder is shedding light on the “very serious fight” he had with Warner Bros. over the character.
In Justice League, John Stewart was meant to serve as an ally to the team and would eventually rally the Green Lantern Corps. to assist in the battle against Darkseid. Zack Snyder previously explained that Warner Bros. asked him not to use the Lantern because the studio had plans for the character in other projects. The director recently referred to the situation as a “fight,” saying that he tried to argue that having Stewart show up in the movie wouldn’t interfere with any of the company’s plans:
When we had this fight, I was like, 'Guys, I don't understand. We have this whole thing of the multiverse, you have this whole like [universe], who cares?' I just think the right end of this movie is John Stewart, that's the correct ending to happen. By the way, I don't want to take anything away from Harry and away from Martian Manhunter, because it's cool. In a lot of ways, seeing him early and then seeing him at the end, it's cool, it kind of completes his story... But it was always my intent to have John Stewart [meet Batman].
While promoting his cut of Justice League, Zack Snyder not only revealed that he had plans for John Stewart but that he also found an actor to play the role. Wayne T. Carr was tapped for the job, and he and Snyder actually filmed a sequence in the director’s driveway. Snyder went on to explain to YouTuber Tyrone Magnus that while he wanted Carr’s Green Lantern to appear in the film, he felt it wasn’t worth the fight, especially since the four-hour movie was so close to being completed at the time:
And also it just makes sense, even if there's no other movies, it would make sense for the movies to come that John Stewart would say, 'OK, the Green Lantern Corps… we’re going to fight with you against Darkseid because we need to do that. Your guys aren't gonna make it without us. We're powerful allies in this.’ To me, it was like a no-brainer, but it was a very serious fight that I was in. To me, it wasn't worth doing it to Wayne [T. Carr], like blowing up the whole movie because it was that close. And then have everyone be like, or have Wayne feel like, 'Oh shit, I canceled the whole movie because Snyder wouldn't budge.' And I just felt like, 'Okay, fuck it. I'm going just [let it go].' And Wayne was great in the thing.
Although fans ultimately didn’t get to see Wayne T. Carr as Green Lantern on screen, both him and Zack Snyder have shared behind-the-scenes photos from their shoot. Carr has also seemingly found a silver lining to being cut from the film, in the fact that he’s now gaining plenty of support and positive feedback from fans. You can check out Snyder’s version of Justice League by streaming it on HBO Max, which you can sign up for using this link.
Fans may have been disappointed that John Stewart didn’t make the final cut but, at the very least, they have been able to get a look at his costume and learn what his ultimate role would’ve been. And who knows, maybe the original scene will see the light of day sometime in the future.
