If current rumors are to be believed, it appears that Warner Bros’ upcoming Justice League movie is going to be a little bit more ethnically diverse than previously thought, with the team’s resident Green Lantern looking to be the African-American John Stewart, and not Hal Jordan as previously assumed. The rumor comes courtesy of The Wrap’s Jeff Sneider on the latest episode of Meet the Movie Press.

Having John Stewart in the Justice League makes sense for a ton of reasons; first off, for a generation of kids who grew up with the Bruce Timm animated Justice League series in the early 2000’s, John Stewart IS Green Lantern, period. When the 2011 Ryan Reynolds movie came out, many of those same fans were disappointed it wasn’t John wielding the ring. Another reason it makes sense is that in today’s marketplace, it can only help to be ethnically diverse–the massive success of the The Fast and the Furious franchise is a testament to that. With current rumors floating about that both Don Cheadle’s War Machine and Anthony Mackie as Falcon with be joining up with the Avengers (not to mention Black Panther, eventually), it bodes well for Warner Brothers to have more than one ethnic character on the team (right now that one character being Cyborg).

While I think it’s a good bet this rumor is true, I don’t think that DC/Warner Bros is going to get rid of Hal Jordan totally; while he might not be in the first of the Justice League movies, there is a Green Lantern movie coming in 2020; it could be maybe we’ll see Hal in that movie, maybe as John’s partner, or as part of the Green Lantern Corps. The reason I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Hal on the big screen? Merchandising. The Hal Jordan version of GL is all over all kinds of merchandise, and I doubt Warners are going to want to sweep him under the rug completely.

Justice League Part 1 hits theaters on November 17, 2017 while the new Green Lantern solo movie is slated for June 19, 2020.

HT: Meet The Movie Press via JoBlo