Of all the villains who’ve battled the various Green Lanterns in DC Comics lore, arguably none have had as big an impact as Sinestro. Once a member of the Green Lantern Corps, the Korugarian was discharged for abusing his power, and he went on to embrace the yellow energy of fear and went on to build the Yellow Lanterns, i.e. the Sinestro Corps. Sinestro and some of his fear-obsessed allies will appear in Green Lantern: Beware My Power, and I learned from supervising producer Butch Lukic how the Sinestro Corps ended up in this animated DC movie.
Green Lantern: Beware My Power will mark the second time the Sinestro Corps have appeared in an animated movie, as the group previously showed up in 2011’s Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. During my conversation with Butch Lukic about Beware My Power, I inquired about how the Sinestro Corps lineup was chosen, specifically noting how is was interesting that Despero was thrown into the mix since he’s not usually affiliated with Sinestro in the comics. Lukic responded:
Yeah, I think the Despero thing might’ve been because of Justice League Adventures, we did a Despero storyline with John Stewart and the Green Lantern Corps. Other than that, it was one of our character designers; when he read the script, he asked if instead of it being just a bunch of bounty hunters, that we could actually do some of these characters as Sinestro’s henchmen. Sometimes I felt, ‘Well, it’s a little tough because some of these guys are just as powerful as Sinestro,’ but if there’s any way we can get these guys in so visually we can do some animation on them, let’s do it.
The Despero story Butch Lukic is referring to is the Justice League two-parter “Heart and Minds,” which saw the Keith David-voiced version of the character using the Flame of Py’tar to defeat multiple Green Lanterns. As far as Green Lantern: Beware My Power’s inclusion of the Sinestro Corps in general though, that came about from one of the movie’s character designers wanting to use these agents of fear rather than just have Sinestro command some generic bounty hunters. Hey, if the supervillain needs some minions to carry out his will, why not outfit them with yellow power rings?
Taking place in the same continuity as Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Justice Society: World War II and Batman: The Long Halloween (and not to be confused with the DC Animated Movie Universe), Green Lantern: Beware My Power stars Black Adam’s Aldis Hodge as John Stewart, a recently discharged Marine sniper who suddenly finds himself being given a Green Lantern power ring. It’s not too much longer afterwards that John has to venture out into the middle of a war between Rann and Thanagar that involves the Sinestro Corps. Beware My Power’s cast also includes Jimmi Simpson as Green Arrow, Jamie Gray Hyder as Hawkgirl, Brian Bloom as Adam Strange and Rick D. Wasserman as Sinestro. Behind the scenes, Jeff Wamester directed, and John Semper and Ernie Altbacker wrote the script.
Green Lantern: Beware My Power will have its world premiere at San Diego Comic-Con this Friday, July 22 at 6:30 pm PT in Ballroom 20, and then it will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and Digital on Tuesday, July 26 by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. For more news on upcoming DC movies, both live-action and animated, as well as HBO Max’s forthcoming Green Lantern TV series, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
