Jackie Earle Haley Still Said To Be A Contender For Green Lantern's Sinestro

The other day when Peter Sarsgaard was cast as Hector Hammond, the primary villain in Green Lantern, a few evidently took this as implicit confirmation that classic Green Lantern baddie Sinestro is not in the film. That isn't the case, and HitFix has a great rundown on what role the eventually villainous Sinestro plays in the film, and in the series overall should the first film be successful enough to warrant another.

Drew's piece is good, and kicks off with one point: that while he's denied doing any screentests, Warner Bros. is keen to cast Jackie Earle Haley as Sinestro. As Drew says, "The groundwork is being laid in the first Lantern for a much larger role for Sinestro later on if this first movie does well, and they like the idea of continuing their relationship with Haley."

And what of the character? Those familiar with various Green Lantern origin stories know that Sinestro isn't a bad guy at the outset. He's another member of the Green Lantern Corps (intergalactic peacekeepers, basically) whose methods are a bit more totalitarian than most. Eventually he becomes an antagonist.

Furthermore, Drew makes the film sound as if it could be packed with characters — "damn near continuity porn for comic fans," he says. So Hector Hammond (Sarsgaard) is a primary villain, but there's more. Ryan Reynolds' character Hal Jordan becomes Green Lantern after encountering a dying alien named Abin Sur, who was pursued to Earth by a foe named Legion — essentially an insectoid hive mind in a mechanical body. He's in the film, and Drew hints at "another major villain" as well.

So there's a lot to do. Which means that we may not see much of Sinestro in the movie, but as things stand now he's evidently a part of the recipe. Better to set him up now, get the origin out of the way and then be able to go into a full-on Green Lantern / Sinestro conflict in another film.