Nathan Fillion in Custom Green Lantern Costume Comic Art
By
Andrew Dyce
Published 19 minutes ago
Andrew Dyce is the Deputy Editor for ScreenRant's coverage of Marvel, DC, and all other comics. Whether superheroes, sci-fi, fantasy, or any other genre, Andrew's decade in the industry and countless hours of analysis on podcasts like the Screen Rant Underground, Total Geekall, The Rings of Power Podcast, Batman v Superman: By The Minute, and more has left its mark.
With over a decade spent at GameRant and ScreenRant, Andrew has made himself known as an outspoken fan and critic of film, television, video games, comics, and more.
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Long before he was ever cast as Green Lantern, millions of people around the world already agreed Nathan Fillion was born to play Hal Jordan. Even though his Lantern role has taken a different path, fans can take comfort in one of the strangest comic book coincidences of all time: that DC Comics somehow broke the laws of time to cast Fillion in the role... before the actor's 18th birthday.
Superman Chose A Familiar Man To Become Earth's Green Lantern
Action Comics #642 (1989) by Elliot S. Maggin, Gil Kane & Glenn Whitmore
Superman Holds Green Lantern's Uniform in Action Comics #642 Cover
To understand this million-to-one comic book coincidence(?) fans must head all the way back to January of 1989, when Action Comics #642 hit comic book shelves everywhere. With a shocking new story titled "Where There is a Will..." the very origin story of Earth's Green Lantern was rewritten. As fans knew it previously, the dying alien Lantern Abin Sur crashed on Earth, and called upon the nearest worthy hero to claim his ring. That man was test pilot Hal Jordan, and the rest was soon history. But that was all about to change.
In the new, previously unknown sequence of events, it was actually Superman called to become Green Lantern first. The Kryptonian politely declined, but Abin Sur sensed this Clark Kent was the right kind of person to help him decide among the candidates. Recognizing one face from a previous news story, Clark named Hal Jordan the best choice to claim the role of Green Lantern. A face which, 36 years later, has since become famous for the very same reason:
Superman Chooses Hal Jordan as Green Lantern in Action Comics #642
Yes: as unlikely, as absurd, or as downright impossible as it might seem, the face of Hal Jordan (or more accurately, the entire side profile and hairstyle) is as close to an artist's rendition of Nathan Fillion as one could likely deliver. Even more absurd, Fillion's own birth in 1971 means that when this issue was published in 1989, the actual actor did not yet look as similar to his future self as this comic art (still attending Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada at the time).
Assuming that acclaimed artist of the era Gil Kane was not secretly a time traveler, clairvoyant, or 'seer' of any kind, it would seem the only explanation is pure, random coincidence. But in the grand scope of history, from the dawn of comic book superheroes in the 1930s, fans won't find as prophetic a superthero casting prediction as Action Comics #642. That the anomaly occurs in a scene of Superman literally 'casting Green Lantern' from a series of headshots suggests something much, much greater at work.
The Only Explanation: Fillion Was Destined To Be Green Lantern
Whether Guy Gardner or Hal Jordan, Nathan Fillion's Role Was Already Decided
Split image of Green Lantern Guy Gardner over Hal Jordan (Nathan Fillion)
Given this new information, the fan campaigns to see the Firefly star cast as a live-action Green Lantern, and his own voice performance as Hal Jordan in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights were weaving the threads of fate all along. Of course, what this means for Fillion's casting as Guy Gardner, and not Jordan in James Gunn's Superman (2025) is less certain.
Thankfully, audiences will have the chance to see Fillion's Gardner in the upcoming Lanterns series, opposite the DCU incarnation of Hal Jordan played by Friday Night Lights alum Kyle Chandler (an accomplished actor in his own right, but whose predestination for the role remains unclear).
So whatever the future may hold for Fillion's role within the larger Green Lantern mythology, fans now have the universe itself supporting their belief that this superhero synergy was meant to be.
Green Lantern
Created By
Martin Nodell, Bill Finger, John Broome, Gil Kane, Dennis O'Neil, Neal Adams
Cast
Ryan Reynolds
First Appearance
All-American Comics
Alias
Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Simon Baz, Jessica Cruz, Sojourner Mullein
Alliance
Justice League, Justice Society of America, Green Lantern Corps
Movies
Green Lantern
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Headshot Of Nathan Fillion IN The The Walking Dead Live: The Finale Event
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Followed
Nathan Fillion
Birthdate
March 27, 1971
Birthplace
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Notable Projects
Firefly, Serenity , Slither
Height
6 feet 2 inches
Professions
Actor, Voice Actor
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Comics
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Nathan Fillion
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Green Lantern
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