How John Boyega Feels About Playing Green Lantern Or Blade

John Boyega in Pacific Rim Uprising

If you'd asked someone four years ago who John Boyega was, most probably wouldn't have known who you were talking about, and the few who did likely knew him best from Attack the Block. Fast-forward to now, Boyega is a big name in Hollywood due to his turn as Finn in the current Star Wars trilogy, as well as starring in movies like The Circle and Detroit. Boyega can be seen later this month in Pacific Rim Uprising, and with his current level of stardom, one could imagine Boyega might be sized up for a superhero role somewhere down the line. However, when asked if he'd have any interest in playing Green Lantern or Blade, Boyega didn't sound particularly enthusiastic about either prospect. He responded:

They're doing a Green Lantern? (Negatively groans) Sss.. Hmmm.....Eghhh.... (Laughs) And Wesley [Snipes], man. That's Wesley for Blade. I would want to see Wesley.

To be perfectly clear, John Boyega isn't against appearing in a superhero movie, as he said earlier in his interview with Screen Rant that he wouldn't mind appearing in one of the big comic book cinematic universes. Just don't expect him to seek out the opportunity to play Green Lantern for DC or Blade for Marvel. The actor particularly notes that he only sees Wesley Snipes continuing to play Blade, Snipes having brought vampire hunter Eric Brooks to life across three movies from 1998 to 2004. Still, there are other characters at Marvel, DC and Valiant who Boyega could potentially play, so maybe one of them might catch his eye at some point.

One of the many DCEU projects currently in development is Green Lantern Corps, a reboot separate from the 2011 Green Lantern movie that starred Ryan Reynolds. While Warner Bros and DC haven't revealed any official details about Green Lantern Corps yet other than the title itself, the movie will reportedly feature Hal Jordan and John Stewart in a Lethal Weapon in space-kind of adventure. Although John Stewart has existed in the DC Comics universe for over 45 years and became more popular thanks to the Justice League animated series, he has yet to appear in a live action movie, although he will make his animated cinematic debut later this year in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.

As for Blade, while Marvel does have the film rights to the character, there hasn't been any announcement of a new Blade movie, though Wesley Snipes is still interested in playing the character again. Because the MCU movies exist in the PG-13 realm, and Blade is a character who was previously utilized under an R rating, it remains to be seen if he will eventually be brought back to a theatrical setting or if he will be saved for a different project, like something on Netflix or the Disney streaming service.

You can see John Boyega back on the big screen when Pacific Rim Uprising opens in theaters on March 23, and don't forget to look through our 2018 release guide to see when this year's other major motion pictures will arrive.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.