James Gunn Responds Brilliantly to Fan Backlash Over Kyle Chandler’s ‘Lanterns’ Casting

DCU has plenty of projects in the works under the watchful eyes of James Gunn and Peter Safran. The projects closest to us are the ‘Creature Commandos’ animated series and ‘Superman’ scheduled for a 2025 release, still plenty of live-action shows focusing on the most notable DC characters are in the works.

One of those shows is ‘Lanterns’ which is set to focus on three notable Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner.

Recently, it’s been confirmed that Kyle Chandler (‘Friday Night Lights,’ ‘Bloodline’) will be portraying Hal Jordan alongside Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart. The initial fan reaction to this casting wasn’t that great as many fans consider the actor “too old” for the role.

Clearly, there is a pattern here as Josh Brolin, who is of similar age to Chandler, was also offered the role and it’s clear that Gunn has a specific version of Hal Jordan in mind – an older, mentor-like figure.

John Stewart is clearly set up to be the lead in the show, and the most important Green Lantern in the DCU, as some reports state that Hal will retire by the end of the show.

Now James Gunn recently discussed the casting with IGN and the director is aware of all the “backlash” that the casting has caused. Gunn laughed at the notion and gave us a brilliant answer:

Wait a second, comic book fans had an opinion on casting. What are you talking about!?

The answer is brilliant since Gunn had to fight “backlash” every step of the way since the news of the DCU appeared. He had to defend Corenswet’s casting as the fans found him “too skinny” before he started bulking for the role. He was also attacked for casting C-list actors to portray Mama and Papa Kent.

On a more serious note, James Gunn praised the writing team behind the ‘Lanterns’ series, describing it as grounded, believable, and human. He explained that the story was crafted to fit actors of certain ages, which is why Kyle Chandler was cast.

Gunn fully supports the casting choices, emphasizing his excitement for the series and his confidence in the team’s vision.

The truth is Chris [Mundy] and Tom [King] and Damon [Lindelof] wrote an amazing series, like an incredible series. I’m so excited for people to see this. It’s very grounded, very believable, very real. The kind of things that you would never think that would be the truth about a Green Lanterns television series.

And very human, adult and wonderful. And the story that they wrote fit a couple of actors who were of these ages and so that’s who they cast. Those were their choices. I totally backed them up. I love them.

So I’m really excited for people to see what those guys have come up with. But everything is to serve the story. The story is always first. The scripts are always first. And we would never be making this show if Chris and the guys hadn’t turned in wonderful, beautiful scripts.

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