Before Jason Momoa ever grabbed the hook and chain, DC’s Main Man almost belonged to Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
In the same Happy Sad Confused sit-down where he confirmed Zack Snyder’s Flashpoint Batman plans and volunteered for Snyder’s Escape from New York, Morgan revealed he was once up to play Lobo, and it was further along than a passing conversation.
Akiva Goldsman, who produced Morgan’s The Losers, had the rights to Lobo, per Morgan. “That was real talk,” he said.
“It Didn’t Suit My Body”
Morgan admitted he had never even heard of Lobo when the role came up, so he dove into the comics and fell in love.
“It suited my humor and my sarcasm,” said Morgan, before delivering the punchline: “It didn’t suit my body.”
His plan? “I got time. I got a year to get big.”
A Script Existed, Then Warner Bros. Blinked
This wasn’t just a handshake idea. Morgan says there was a script floating around that needed work.
As for why it died, Morgan’s read is blunt: Warner Bros., coming off Watchmen and The Losers, “wasn’t having a great time with DC.”
Then he twisted the knife on himself, joking that “maybe we shouldn’t bet too much on this dude,” since he starred in both.
The timing tracks with the early 2010s stretch when a Lobo movie kept cycling through development at Warner Bros., with Guy Ritchie and later Brad Peyton attached at different points and Dwayne Johnson once circling the role.
The Main Man’s Long Road
It took another decade and a half for Lobo to reach the screen, with Momoa, a genuine metalhead playing comics’ most metal character, finally debuting the Main Man in Supergirl and walking away as the film’s highlight.
Not that the road got easier.
The solo movie stalled after Supergirl bombed, and as CBN covered, Lobo’s next confirmed gig is a non-canon kids cartoon.
