Tom Cruise just took his first steps towards joining James Gunn’s DCU, and here’s who he needs to play

As Superman: Legacy draws nearer and nearer to going before cameras — production is set to begin this spring — the DCU is shaping up nicely.

And yet, with relatively lesser-known faces/TV stars like David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan leading the charge so far, it’s worth noting that James Gunn’s fresh franchise is lacking any major A-listers at present. But maybe Tom Cruise could help change that.

In a surprising move, Cruise is returning to Warner Bros. for the first time since 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow to make “original and franchise films” for the studio. Although he’ll still be working with Universal and Paramount, Cruise has signed a non-exclusive deal with WB Discovery to both generate some new mega-hits and help bolster its various flagging franchises. So naturally superhero fans are thinking only one thing: does this mean Cruise is on his way to the DCU?

Cruise’s near-miss Iron Man casting with Marvel is legendary, but let’s not forget that this is the guy who heaped praise on The Flash last year, so he’s definitely a secret DC fan too. With the DCU a completely open toybox at present, there are so many potential places for Cruise to appear. And yet James Gunn would be wise to listen to what the fandom has wanted for years now and give it to them — albeit with a bit of a twist.

Tom Cruise needs to fulfill the DC fandom’s dreams and become a Green Lantern

For the longest time, Tom Cruise has been at the top of DC fans’ lists for who they want to see play Hal Jordan in a Ryan Reynolds-less reboot of Green Lantern. This fancast took root back when Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie was circling such a project, with Cruise naturally rumored to be his top choice of leading man. Even long after this version of the film was parked, though, Cruise has stuck around in people’s thoughts to play an older, more experienced Hal.

An older, experienced Hal is probably what we’re going to get in Gunn’s DCU too, but the thing is Cruise is extremely unlikely to play that role. Why? Because the Green Lantern reboot, titled Lanterns, is set to be a streaming TV series headed to Max and not a movie. As we all know, Tom Cruise loves two things, movies and popcorn, so it’s practically a mission: impossible to expect him to make the jump to the small-screen.

Luckily, though, there are many other Green Lanterns out there in the DC universe, and Gunn is clearly keen to bring them to life as well. Just look at how Nathan Fillion is playing Guy Gardner in Superman: Legacy. The exciting thing about Gunn’s plans is that he looks to be celebrating all of DC history all at once, with Corenswet’s Man of Steel being introduced into a world where superheroes already exist. So, theoretically, there’s room for Cruise to play the Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott.

Scott is the perfect role for Cruise as hiring him to embody a veteran superhero would be a great bit of meta-casting, reflecting how he’s an old-school movie star passing the torch to the younger generation of today. Such a casting would even build on the way Gunn worked with Sylvester Stallone in Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad. As for where this casting could happen, we could always get a Justice Society film, building off the team’s cinematic debut in Black Adam?

There’s one more element that would make Cruise’s casting as Alan Scott additionally noteworthy: in recent years, DC Comics has seen Scott come out as gay. Gunn’s franchise could ignore this, as it was a somewhat controversial development and it isn’t a traditional part of the character, however it would be more interesting if Scott’s sexuality was explored in the movies. Cruise has never played an openly gay character in any of his films to date, so portraying Scott would be pretty… brave and bold of him.

Or, you know, Gunn could cast him as Batman and watch the internet explode.