James Gunn Is the Key to Reviving Alan Ritchson’s Scrapped DC Spinoff

If you follow telly or blockbuster movies at all, you probably know Alan Ritchson mostly for battering his way through Amazon's Reacher. But there's been another, rather interesting rumour shadowing his career lately: could he be about to swim over into James Gunn's revamped DC universe?

Here's where it gets a bit tangled. Months back, Ritchson openly admitted he'd been chatting with Gunn about a potential part in the DCU reboot. Predictably, fans immediately leapt to the obvious: Batman! To be fair, Ritchson's size and deadpan glare could make for a decent Dark Knight. He was having none of it, though – said he'd much rather have a role with a bit more dirt under its fingernails, if that was on offer. Not that the internet paid attention.

What's a bit of a fun fact (or a sticking point, depending how you look at it): Alan Ritchson has already worn the trunks as a DC superhero, long before Gunn had a glint in his eye about rebooting the whole thing. You might need to cast your mind back a bit for this one.

Yes, Alan Ritchson Was Aquaman Way Before Momoa

Back in those old TV days of Smallville – you know, the angsty Superman prequel with Tom Welling pouting around in plaid – Ritchson actually played Aquaman. He turned up in four separate episodes over a decade of Smallville, and surprisingly, audiences genuinely liked his take. Apparently, he struck enough of a chord that the network started lining up a spin-off purely for his version of the character.

Now it gets daft: this was Ritchson's first ever acting gig. He was in his early twenties, green as you like, but still managed to get the bosses buzzing about an "A.C. Curry" show. Then business nonsense bulldozed the plans. The WB and UPN merged to become The CW, and the new big boss on the block wasn't willing to risk a big-budget series with a star who, frankly, had next to no experience. So they binned it. That's Hollywood, isn't it?

Ritchson's spoken about this before, actually. In hindsight, he calls the cancellation "the best thing that's ever happened" to him. Beating the small pond curse, he reckons, probably set him up long-term – otherwise he'd never have landed gigs like Reacher later on.

Why Ritchson Deserves Another Swing at Aquaman

There's still an argument (and it's one I buy) that Ritchson was cut short as Aquaman. His handful of scenes in Smallville were solid; if the world had turned a little differently, he might actually have become the Aquaman in our collective TV memory. The Spider-Man situation with Tobey Maguire, but for deep-sea blondes.

Now, after proving himself properly as a leading man in movies and television, Ritchson is back in the running for these monster-sized parts. James Gunn's reshuffling of the DC playground could be his unexpected second chance. If Gunn did cast him as the new Aquaman, it wouldn't just be clever for the reboot – it would sort of right an old wrong; finally giving Ritchson the sprawling, big-screen take he always sort of earned (and, frankly, didn’t get to do properly first time round).

Why do I think it's not so far-fetched? Well, James Gunn has a track record here. For instance, he kept Alan Tudyk on as Clayface from the Harley Quinn cartoon to Creature Commandos, even though technically they're different universes, as long as he thought the performance fit. Gunn doesn't religiously reboot every role just for the sake of a new face.

And Gunn's got a soft spot for Smallville specifically. In his upcoming 2025 Superman movie, he swapped Lex Luthor's company name to 'LuthorCorp' – a nod straight from Smallville, when the wider comics or films normally use 'LexCorp'. He reckons it makes more sense for Lex to use his surname, not his first. So Gunn pays attention to these things; he's not above tipping his hat to old DC telly if it suits the script.

Two Aquamen Walk Into a Bar...

The handover from the old Zack Snyder-led DC films to Gunn's vision was, let's be honest, anything but smooth. Gunn's own films, like The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker Season 1, technically belong to the previous era, but he's folded a bit of his past back in where it made sense. Still, there's been a proper clean break in certain places: the big one being the new Superman, with the rest of the old Justice League quietly shelved.

• Jason Momoa – the previous, musclebound Aquaman – has not exactly been booted out. Instead, Momoa's back in the DCU as Lobo for the upcoming Supergirl film, apparently the start of many appearances as Gunn builds this new universe.
• If Ritchson is brought in as the new Aquaman, you've got both actors in the same new franchise, just playing wildly different roles. Imagine the first time Lobo and Aquaman cross paths – it would almost be rude not to make a sly wink at the camera about the switcheroo, given the shared casting history.

If you like your superhero franchises weirdly self-aware, the temptation to break the fourth wall might be too strong for Gunn to resist. I suppose we'll just have to see if the stars line up for Ritchson to trade in his trench coat for orange scales once more.