John Stewart As GL in Reboot: Have The Fans Spoken?

With the DCCU nearly underway, the role of Green Lantern has been a topic of intense debate. And that is to be expected. With the launch of a new DCCU, the chraracter that gets the luxury of being the Green Lantern, will gain lots of benefits for being in that highly coveted spot.

If handled correctly, Hal Jordan will right the wrongs of the previous Green Lantern film, that the general audience seemed to dislike. In fact, the main issue for some of my white friends were going off the thought that they changed the original black character to white, I had to correct them and told them that this wasn't the case. Which goes into my next point, Hal would also have a high quality, extremely popular showing outside of DC comics, something that John Stewart seems to have an advantage over Hal in terms of popularity and recognition. Cementing his place as more significant both on the big screen, and in comics as well.

If John Stewart were to get this role, not only would John be even more popular than he already is according to the general audience, but seeing him fight alongside superman and the rest of the trinity in live action after doing the same in arguably the most popular DC animated tv show ever, a case could be made that John would have officially solidified his place as the most popular/ significant and primary human Green Lantern of the DC universe. And I wouldn't be surprised if his role within DC comics increased as well as a result. Take iron man's increase in popularity as a result of his live action incarnation as an example. His popularity has sky rocketed.

I recently stumbled upon an article on IGN (ranked in the top 200 websites in web traffic within the US, Canada, and the UK according to alexa). One thing I found striking was a poll conducted on the site that asked who should grab the role of Green Lantern in the reboot. And to my surprise, it wasn't even close. In the most recently conducted survey on this topic June 28th, John Stewart took a WHOPPING 61% of the votes (Hal - 27%, Kyle -8.4%). These are numbers that are irrefutable. And its surprising because John has practically been in cryo sleep since the animated series Justice League. And yet he's still as popular as ever. How is this possible? I think this goes to show that maybe John Stewart's fan base is much larger than we all think. And I believe with the greater deserved attention he's getting within DC comics, it will only grow larger. I think the fans have said who they want for the reboot, and the man for the job is John Stewart. Source

One thing is certain, there's a lot riding on the position of Green Lantern in live action. And whoever gets this role, whether it be John Stewart or Hal Jordan, things may never be the same. So what do you guys think? Would you prefer to give John a shot at live action, or would you rather see Hal? Feel free to discuss!

I'm in favor of a GL reboot. I don't mind Hal or John.

It should not be Kyle, because he's important to the rebuilding of the GL Corps. And it shouldn't be Guy, because Guy sucks.

Honestly, I was against the very idea of him starring in a reboot. I was against anyone except Hal, to be honest. After some thought, I actually wouldn't mind. Although it was terrible, I'm satisfied that Hal Jordan got his chance. If they can find a good actor, then I'd be good with John Stewart.

this. i'd be ecstatic if they went with Hal though.

I'm not a John fan, so I don't really want him.

Keep the dang movie. Yes it was not that good, but it already set up the Green lantern universe. And keep hal jordan. The other lanterns are boring. Kyle is okay...

bring on the reboot. derek luke for john stewart.

I'd definitely prefer John over Hal.

Hal in the reboot for sure, race shouldn't run this game. Although John Stewart is awesome

Seeing as how John is the most popular GL it would be smart to use him in the reboot.

There should be a GL reboot but in it there should be no John.

John Stewart will be awesome in a JL movie

John, purely due to nostalgia for the JLA cartoon. Seriously he never really impressed me in the comics but in that show he was one of my favs.

I would love nothing more than to see John on the big screen. But knowing how much of a hard on for Hal DC has, it's highly likely they'll use him instead.

Have Hal and John be partners and Hal leaves to do something. Or maybe they could switch in and out of the League.

@lilben42: that's how I always felt about how they should do it. Hal can be out in space fighting [insert bad guy here] and his hands are too full to return to earth. Thus the Gaurdians send a ring to John Stewart. Cue [insert villain here] starting to tear up sh!t and John teaming up with other DC heroes to save the day.

Also, if a mod could movie this to the green lantern section it will be greatly appreciated. I must have forgotten to make it there.

I don't mind John or Hal being in the reboot. I just want it to be done well.

Am I the only one who thinks Hal needs to stay THE Green Lantern? Alright, so they screwed up the movie, but that doesn't mean they need to make John the hero and disregard Hal. Look at the Superman movies. None of them were exactly awesome, but they didn't give up on Superman and now they have Man of Steel, one of the greatest super hero movies ever. Making John the hero isn't going to make the next movie better and I have lots of respect for John, but Hal in the comics is THE green lantern. He is the heart of the most epic story lines and that shouldn't be changed. Keep Hal as the main green lantern and just work on making a GREAT movie this time.

I think if they do the reboot then they should redo it with Hal Jordan again and just basically try to start from the beginning but if they are going to do a soft reboot or sequel then they should do John Stewart. The last movie wasnt that bad except for the villain was %*^&$%^ HORRIBLE!!!! That is really the big issue with that movie everything else i could have let slide.

I would love to see a GL movie based off of John Stewart though. I think the problem would be that John is such a serious character which means it would be a very very serious movie and he would have to have Kilowog there or something as comedy relief (i know Kilowog doesnt joke around either) or maybe that chipmunk lantern. And through the whole movie John wouldnt do more then crack a smile when he thought something was funny.

Why not, but Hal should be there too.

Hal screwing up is in his character, not just the movie. But John however...

Also, THE Green Lantern has always been the legendary Alan Scott! He is the true Green Lantern and the one who wrote the book on willpower!

I'd vote John any day of the week.

Since when do they care about fans?

John Stewart is not more popular than Hal Jordan. People who don't read comic books votes for John, that's because they don't know either character and only watched the cartoon. we've seen on Comic Vine many times that Hal Jordan is the most popular, Kyle Rayner second and John Stewart third. Aren't we the ones that should know?

Plus, no one cried when Kingpin and Perry White changed "color" (I don't think so at least).

Have the next GL movie be about John, but keep it set in the Ryan Reynolds universe.

Even if it was a bad movie, you've set up the premise. Now let's see people live in that world.

I don't entirely trust IGN polls or their audience. It wouldn't surprise me if many of the voters thought they were picking the guy from The Daily Show.

John Stewart IS more popular than Hal Jordan, because he's been exposed to the general public more than Hal was.

Hal Jordan may be more popular in comic-reader circles, but that is a minority(maybe a LARGE group of people, but still a minority).

lmao

The reboot needs to have Hal, maybe John Stewart can have a cameo or something.

I pretty much consider John as the Green Lantern for the Justice League anyways considering I grew up watching him in the animated series. If someone could somehow get that voice actor to voice over the live actor..... naaah it wouldn't happen. Oh well

@black_claw: Right it would keep the flow going. As long as they don't switch out in the middle of a movie with no warning. But I liked how in JLU the league would be busy with other things. Like in the manhunters episode Martian Manhunter was like...

Wonder Woman is on another case. Superman is dealing with an earthquake and Batman would only say he was busy. (John was off that day)

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet but there's an important factor that everybody's missing that rules out John being able to be the Green Lantern if they reboot it..but wasn't Hal Jordan the first human GL? therefore popularity should not overrule continuity. Ben Reily use to be more popular then Peter Parker but that doesn't mean we should reboot spider-man using him instead..To do the story right you have to start with the original. As I already mentioned Jordan was the first human GL so he'd have to be introduced anyways or you might wind up making some GL fans mad if they change the story around just to make Stewart GL. Please no Alan Scott..the gay green lantern didn't go over well with everyone so I doubt it'd do the same on the big screen

I'm amazed how people are somehow surprised by John's popularity, the kids that watched JL are now young adults with internet connection, and since in the last decade there wasn't any other big exposure for any Green Lantern after JLU the only GL that those kids knew throughout their lives was John, it's really not a mystery that he's the most popular GL, as it won't be no mystery when Hal becomes the most popular GL 10 years down the road.

Anyway, I don't really care who the GL is, but being that the film will probably be quite serious if it follows MoS' tone I'd preffer the cocky Hal over the serious John. Only character that I really want to see in this movie is Martian Manhunter.

No, you're not the only one.

I'm so getting tired of hearing about the show, while it is true that he got more publicity, it still seems ridiculous to me. I like John, I like Hal. But Hal is THE Green Lantern, when comic fans think of THE Green Lantern, I'm pretty sure most either think two things.

1. Why is this idiot only trying to imply there is only one?

2. Hal Jordan.

I think it's time we give Hal the chance he deserves. People saying, "Well, he got the movie.", that's a poor argument. That movie was horrible and it stood no chance. I say give Hal an actual chance, with a good actor, and a good script this time. Get people to realize, Hal Jordan should be the main one. Get the mainstream audience in on it.

It'll never happen.

I feel the same way about Ghost Rider or any film that has a secondary character or someone that's taken up the mantle before. If their film does bad all of a sudden you see people suggest they use John Stewart or Danny Ketch or Ben Reily or whoever else has taken up the mantle that the original character had. IMO Hal needs to be done first..Hal vs Sinestro is classic,whereas Stewart? I can't recall him ever really having an arch villain..and I hope I don't sound bad by saying this but when it comes to these two I've always felt like I viewed Hal as Tony Stark and Stewart as Rhodey

john sucks

Yeah, John is so bland. Hal is so much deeper and interesting

I completely agree with this. Well said.

I'm not talking about the homo Alan, I'm talking about the straight Alan Scott! And I want him in an animated short or movie very similar to the one about the Spectre (ethereal being in the night), but more emphases on the contrast between light and darkness at night (GL should light up a whole room). A manifestation of Gotham's hope, the Green Lantern removes dark evil.

I'm in total support of John Stewart as the green lantern to use as far as DCCU is concerned.

My reasons:

1. His origin story is a bit obscure which leaves a lot of room for interpretation, exploration and character development.

2. He's more familiar to the present generation as GL.

And just there's still room for Hal to come in and make an entrance, perhaps as parallax or the spectre.

I want John to have a turn now.

I love John Stewart. He's always been one of my favorite DC characters. I guess it's a soldier thing.

I still favor Hal. His sarcastic asshole personality would provide a nice balance to the serious and dark characters in the Justice League. And I want to see Barry and Hal in a live action movie.

Throw everyone off and make it Guy Gardner, also do so with a middle finger in the air.

Which ever role gets the better actor I don't care

John is literally my least favorite human GL besides Simon Baz. I want Hal, and I think the movie needs him, or else the team will be composed of serious, brooding warriors, Kryptonians and Batmen. Hal adds the comic relief.

bring on John Stewart.