10 Upcoming Comic Book Films (And Who Should Direct Them)

2. Green Lantern Corps: Justin Lin

star trek beyond chris pine justin lin
Paramount

JJ Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot was divisive amongst hardcore Trekkies, but there's no denying that it galvanised the franchise, and provided the base necessary for Star Trek: Discovery to move ahead this year.

Funnily enough, the best film of the rebooted trilogy didn't actually feature Abrams, but rather Justin Lin instead. Lin, more famous for helming the Fast and the Furious franchise than anything else, took to Star Trek: Beyond and illustrated - in no small way - that he just plain gets sci-fi. The director's involvement in several episodes of Dan Harmon's Community probably did much to show that too.

Anyway, with Green Lantern needing something pretty dramatic to remind audiences he's infinitely more compelling than a tacky CGI suit would suggest, it needs to hit the ground running. Lin, having worked on Star Trek and the Fast and the Furious, could easily ensure that speedy start, especially if the feature will revolve around more than one member of DC's famous emerald corps.

There are certainly other directors out there with the sci-fi pedigree to make Green Lantern work, but Lin straight up knows how to make a compelling blockbuster. Given the freedom necessary to make it work, it could just make for the best DC feature yet.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.