The casting comes as a bit of a surprise, as momentum – at least in the rumor mill – seemed to be leaning toward Bradley Cooper. Reynolds, Cooper, Jared Leto and Justin Timberlake all had been in contention, but Reynolds, who will be the first person to play a major character for both a Marvel and DC movie, will play the ring-wielding superhero.

Green Lantern was one of my favorite comic books growing up, though I came in near the end of Hal Jordan’s tenure and abandoned the series – and comic books in general – while Kyle Rayner was still the man behind the mask. But Hal Jordan will, fittingly, be the character of choice for this adaptation, which will be directed by Martin Campbell.

Green Lantern will, frankly, be a tough movie to pull off. Though generally well known, he is not universally known like Superman, Spider-Man or Batman. Furthermore, his superpower – able to create green objects with a ring – may be tricky to bring to the big screen. But I do have some confidence that Campbell, who is the man behind such films as Goldeneye and Casino Royale, can pull it off.

Interestingly, The Hollywood Reporter, which first broke this story, notes that Reynolds was also slated to star in DC Comics’ The Flash a few years back, before that production fell through. Furthermore, apparently casting for Green Lantern took so long because Campbell, the producer and the studio each had a different favorite to play the lead.

If the contract goes through, he will appear in the season finale and will be involved in a story arc in season two.

As background, the creator of the show – J.J. Abrams – is also the director of Star Trek, and Nimoy makes an appearance in that movie. Apparently, the guy played a character named Spock off and on for the last few decades.

Let me cap this off by saying that Fringe is one of those shows that I look forward to every week. I was… er, on the fringe… when the show first started, but it has developed into an entertaining and intriguing sci-fi thriller with some truly weird things. That being said, it also inspired me to start watching The X-Files from the beginning, and two seasons in, all I can say is that, even 15 years later, The X-Files is a much better show than Fringe. But, I don’t have to choose between the two.

But the next two Pirates movies were so-so at best, and other than a paycheck, doing a fourth movie would do nothing to further Knightley’s career. Here’s here well-stated comment on the subject:

It was a completely fantastic experience, and it was an amazingly large portion of my life, but I don’t think I need to go there again. I think that it’s done. But I’m very excited to see the next one. And he is so wonderful in that character. I think it’ll be wonderful.

While I’m not surprised Disney is going ahead with another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, considering that the franchise has earned them a tremendous amount of money, I am not at all looking forward to seeing the fourth film. The third film was annoying and stupid; why should a fourth be any better?