A new image of Wayne T. Carr's Green Lantern removed from the Snyder Cut has been released, which shows how bizarre his DCEU absence remains.

The new image of Wayne T. Carr's Green Lantern, intended for Zack Snyder's Justice League, makes his continued DCEU absence more baffling than it was. The legend of the Justice League Snyder Cut continues to be one of the most enduring stories of modern superhero movies. The unprecedented fan campaign for Snyder's original cut of Justice League came after the completely overhauled theatrical version flopped in theaters in 2017. The Snyder Cut would eventually be announced in May 2020, and debuted on HBO Max on March 18th the following year.

While the film was being completed, Snyder carried out a final round of additional filming in late 2020. This would add two scenes at the end of the movie that teased where the Snyder Cut's story could go. One involved a scene in the Knightmare future seen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the second saw the extraterrestrial hero Martian Manhunter (Harry Lennix) pay a visit to Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck). However, the latter originally had one major difference, changed at the request of Warner Bros.

Snyder's intended final scene for the Snyder Cut would involve John Stewart arriving, bringing Green Lantern into his DC films at last. On the one-year anniversary of the Snyder Cut's debut, Carr released an image of himself as Green Lantern from the deleted scene. Carr also showed his enthusiasm for the role with the caption "Give the fans what they want- JL 2/3" along with the Restore the SnyderVerse hashtag and part of the Green Lantern oath, "In brightest day". In addition to effectively being a Snyder Cut character tease outside of the movie, it also demonstrates the general Green Lantern problem Warner Bros. has had in the DCEU.

Why Green Lantern Was Removed From The Snyder Cut

As part of the Snyder Cut's cliffhanger ending, John Stewart's scene for the movie was filmed on Snyder's own driveway. The scene was intended to play out more or less the same as the final scene in the film with Martian Manhunter visiting Bruce Wayne's lake house. With Green Lantern as the final core Justice League member to be revealed in the film, his appearance would establish the entire team. The nature of the scene would also tease the Justice League sequels as the Martian Manhunter version does.

Upon the Snyder Cut's debut, Snyder revealed that the scene was asked to be removed by Warner Bros., on the grounds of WB having their own plans for John Stewart. This was what ultimately led to Martian Manhunter replacing Green Lantern in the movie's ending. Despite the scene's removal, there's been plenty of enthusiasm around it. Snyder would release numerous behind-the-scenes images of the making of the scene on social media, while Carr has made the rounds in online interviews. Carr's release of the Green Lantern image would also have another effect on general discussions of Green Lantern on film.

Warner Bros. Plans For Green Lantern Have Yet To Materialize

With the image of Carr in full Green Lantern garb, it brings to light the character's absence from the DCEU. To begin with, the originally announced Green Lantern Corps movie, part of the DCEU's original slate, never got off the ground (likely at least partially owing to the fallout of the Justice League reshoots). Warner Bros.' purported plans for John Stewart also particularly highlight the studio's Green Lantern conundrum. Despite being the stated reason for John Stewart's removal from the Snyder Cut, there's been no sign of John appearing anywhere else in the DCEU. This also extends to the in-development Green Lantern HBO Max series.

The series itself has taken a noticeably long time to get going, with casting seemingly still underway. While production delays certainly aren't out of the scope of regularity, John Stewart himself also has no known presence in the Green Lantern series. The show is set to focus on the Lanterns Guy Gardener, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, and Alan Scott, with Finn Wittrock and Jeremy Irvine cast as Gardener and Scott.

With the series showing Lanterns more in space than the Snyder Cut and centering on other characters, it would be easy for John Stewart, Hal Jordan, or both to represent the Corps on the big-screen. John especially, due to his role on the Justice League animated series, is quite possibly the most universally known Green Lantern to the public. Meanwhile, Mission: Impossible - Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie's rejected pitch for a Henry Cavill-led Superman movie was also said to tie into the Green Lantern Corps. With that too never getting going, it points to a lack of urgency for Green Lantern within the DCEU.

Green Lantern's DCEU Absence Is Getting Harder To Ignore

Green Lantern certainly isn't the only DC character who has faced unexpected cancellation of film plans. Still, Green Lantern, as one of the heroes of the Justice League, is one Warner Bros. seems to be particularly indecisive about. To be fair, the failure of the 2011 Green Lantern movie - which led to the cancellation of Green Lantern 2 - likely contributed to the studio being gun shy on the character for a while. Still, even the 2017 cut of Justice League shows Green Lantern beginning to re-emerge with Yalan Gur being retained in the history lesson from Snyder's original version.

Yalan Gur returned in the Snyder Cut, in a somewhat different context dying at the hands of Darkseid (Ray Porter). That and Steppenwolf's (Ciarán Hinds) "No Lanterns" line shows attempts were beginning to be made to re-introduce Green Lantern. An appearance in Justice League by a human Lantern like John could have both established Green Lantern's relationship with the League and set up his solo movie. Snyder even envisioned not just Carr's John Stewart, but also potentially bringing back Ryan Reynolds in the Snyder Cut as a new version of Hal Jordan. The problem is the lack of following through on the set ups being made, being decreed at the studio level. The Snyder Cut also wasn't the first time John Stewart specifically ended up on the cutting room floor, with a John Stewart cameo in the Green Lantern movie being deleted (Nick Jones Jr. having played John.) The circumstances of John Stewart's Snyder Cut removal further illuminate the problem of not only the issues of Green Lantern moving ahead, but John in particular getting the short end of the stick.

Despite the character change in the Snyder Cut's ending scene, interest in Carr's Green Lantern is just as high as the rest of Snyder's two planned Justice League sequels. With Green Lantern intended to feature prominently in Snyder's Justice League 2 and Justice League 3 (the films partially based on Final Crisis), the image of Carr in the role is bound to simply intensify #RestoreTheSnyderVerse calls. Furthermore, the John Stewart scene original filmed for Zack Snyder's Justice League is the closest Green Lantern has come to making it back into cinematic life - making his continued lack of DCEU presence a major ongoing issue.

NEXT: Justice League: WB's SnyderVerse Mistake Now Looks Even Worse