Why Ryan Reynolds Was Never The Same After Green Lantern
Ryan Reynolds has been around in Hollywood for a long time at this point. The actor debuted in a Canadian teen drama series in the early '90s before graduating to American film and television roles, plying his trade in everything from "Two Guys and a Girl" and "The X-Files" to movies like "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" and "The Amityville Horror." His increasing star power made him seem destined for a lead role in a big studio blockbuster, but when the time came, things didn't go as planned. Reynolds was cast as Hal Jordan in the 2011 DC tentpole "Green Lantern," which became one of the most notorious superhero movie flops ever.
Reynolds eventually bounced back, but his life would never be the same. "Green Lantern" bombed at the box office and it went down terribly with both audiences or critics, becoming such a notable misfire that it almost formed part of Reynolds' personality for a while. He decided to own it rather than shy away from it, but the reality is he had no choice — there's nowhere to hide in Hollywood. Of course, Reynolds is best known for playing Marvel's Deadpool today. It's become his career defining role, but his Hal Jordan experience arguably had a bigger impact on him. Here's why Ryan Reynolds was never the same after "Green Lantern."
Green Lantern almost killed superhero films (and Ryan Reynolds' career)
To this day, the only comic book superhero that Ryan Reynolds has played in live-action is Green Lantern. Sure, he showed up as a vampire hunter in "Blade: Trinity" and as Wade Wilson in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," but in neither of those films did he play a superhero — and no, despite the fact that he fights for the side of good for the most part, Deadpool isn't actually a superhero. Of course, this wasn't for lack of trying. For years, Reynolds was attached to play Wally West/The Flash in a live-action solo feature, but that project failed to hit the ground running. Incidentally, when the actor was first offered "Green Lantern," he wasn't exactly head-over-heels.
"When I went to the meeting, I was entirely cynical," Reynolds told MTV in 2009. "I thought, 'What the hell, I'll see what they have to say,' and I left the room with a completely different perspective." Reynolds was impressed with director Martin Campbell's vision for the character and enticed by the massive scale of the Green Lantern mythos. He was even on board with the CGI suit idea in the beginning, which ended up becoming one of the most-mocked aspects of the film due to its jarring appearance. When "Green Lantern" failed, it took a while for Reynolds to recover, with the project hanging over him in Hollywood. "I represented the death of the superhero for a while," he said in 2016 (via Variety). "After 'Green Lantern,' I was pretty much unhirable."
Ryan Reynolds met his wife Blake Lively on Green Lantern
Of course, not everything associated with "Green Lantern" is negative. In fact, perhaps the most important life change that resulted from Ryan Reynolds being in the film was a positive one. Though "Green Lantern" was panned, Reynolds met his future wife Blake Lively (who plays Hal Jordan's love interest, Carol Ferris) on the set in 2010. Reynolds had previously been married to Marvel star Scarlett Johansson, with the couple officially divorcing in 2011. He got to know Lively as they worked together on "Green Lantern," and the pair have even more chemistry off-screen than they did while on camera (not that sparks don't fly between Hal and Carol).
Love was in the air in 2012 when Reynolds and Lively were married in a private ceremony in South Carolina, proving that their romantic entanglements lasted well beyond the "Green Lantern" end credits. The pair can often be seen poking fun at each other on social media (especially on their birthdays) and they have had four children together since tying the knot. This Hollywood power couple even has a rule that they don't ever work simultaneously, a boundary that helps them maintain their marriage and remain available for their children. Speaking to Amber Tamblyn on the podcast "Further Ado," Lively said: "When Ryan and I got together, we made a rule not to work at the same time, so that we could always prioritize our personal life. That takes working really hard when we're not. Just like financial planning and sustaining that; it takes balance."
Inspiring young Green Lantern fans meant the world to Ryan Reynolds
For Ryan Reynolds, perhaps the best thing about working on "Green Lantern" were the precious moments the actor shared with fans. In an interview with SlashFilm, Reynolds recounted how he inspired a young fan at San Diego Comic-Con after reciting the Green Lantern Corps oath on stage. "I just wanted to shake him down to see if it was a plant, but no. He was the real deal," Reynolds said, noting that he got to meet this young kid after the fact. "I got to see his face. I mean, like, not to overly romanticize it, but you have that moment when that happens where I sort of recognize the gravity of this."
It's one thing to play an irreverent role like Deadpool which garners plenty of laughs but fails to actively inspire his audience. Green Lantern, on the other hand, is based entirely on the premise of overcoming fear, so it's not surprising that Reynolds' commitment to the Hal Jordan character would trigger this sort of reaction. "It's moments like that at Comic-Con with that kid that just, boy, I wouldn't trade that for the world," the actor added. Even with a film that failed to meet our modern expectations for superhero pictures, Reynolds' time as a Green Lantern still managed to inspire some, and for the actor, that's part of what made it worthwhile.
He learned a lot about what makes a big blockbuster work
"Green Lantern" set out to be an inspirational superhero blockbuster set within a viscerally fantastical world, but making that world a reality wasn't a walk in the park. Even putting aside all the strangeness surrounding the purely CGI uniforms or the fact that Michael Clarke Duncan wasn't cast as Kilowog until post-production, some elements surrounding "Green Lantern" didn't sit right with its lead star. For Ryan Reynolds, it was frustrating that so much of Martin Campbell's only superhero picture was focused on special effects rather than character-driven storytelling.
"You really need a visionary behind a movie like that, but it was the classic studio story," Reynolds lamented to Empire in 2016 (via Cosmic Book News). In Reynolds' mind, Warner Bros. was too focused on making something that would rival the still-growing Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that's what ultimately killed the picture. As the actor noted again in a 2023 interview with Variety, that's a very "old school" way to approach filmmaking that doesn't quite work the same way anymore. On the bright side, his frustrations with the way "Green Lantern" was handled were mistakes he would later correct with "Deadpool," which still manages to be a fairly character-driven piece despite its place in the greater X-Men (and now MCU) franchise.
Green Lantern was supposed to be the start of a new cinematic universe
Reinforcing the idea that Warner Bros. wanted Ryan Reynolds to help launch the DC answer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Green Lantern" was meant to be the start of a wider franchise that would have continued with both a sequel and a film about The Flash. Writers Michael Green, Greg Berlanti, and Marc Guggenheim (the latter two of which went on to become creative forces behind the Arrowverse franchise) were all slated to return for the "Green Lantern" sequel. This likely would have centered on Mark Strong's Sinestro (who gives perhaps the strongest performance in "Green Lantern") as he embraced fear and turned against the Green Lantern Corps.
Reynolds had actually expressed hopes that he would make his way into a "Justice League" movie somewhere down the line, but all the willpower in the world couldn't have made that movie happen — at least, whatever version might have sprung from the world of "Green Lantern." Speaking to SlashFilm in 2011, he said: "Personally, and I have talked to no one about this, but I would love to see Geoff's [Johns] DC Universe Online – that kind of idea with this kind of post apocalyptic Justice League. I just thought that was really amazing. Just the visuals of that. I would love to see something like that." It's too bad, because it would've been fun to see Reynolds' Hal Jordan interact with The Flash in something other than a MNTN commercial.
Ryan Reynolds was horrified by the final product
Most DC fans were massively disappointed when "Green Lantern" was released. The film felt unevenly paced, relied too much on computer-generated spectacle, and never seemed to quite live up to the mythos. Comic book fans might sometimes be a bit overly critical, but even general audiences failed to be enraptured by Hal Jordan's journey toward overcoming fear. Unfortunately, that sentiment was felt by the film's star as well. "You know, sitting in that premiere, watching that, oh my God. It's tough," Ryan Reynolds admitted over a decade after "Green Lantern" hit theaters (via Variety).
"It was crazy. It was an odd feeling. It was not a feeling I wanted to repeat," Reynolds continued. "So I really spent the following years just owning as much as I could, it was the only way to kind of process it." Following the 2011 flop, Reynolds didn't turn his back on comic book adaptations or science fiction spectacles, but instead continued to embrace them. Movies like "R.I.P.D.," "Free Guy," "The Adam Project," and the "Deadpool" films all reinforce the idea that Reynolds himself was never the problem with "Green Lantern." Done differently, and with a better plan in place, the film likely would have been a success.
Reynolds used Green Lantern's notoriety to his advantage
In a humorous effort to own his mistakes, Ryan Reynolds has taken a lot of shots at "Green Lantern" since its release, but he has no regrets. "If I had to do it all again, I'd do the exact same thing," he told GQ in 2015. "You know, also, 'Green Lantern' — you gotta remember, at the time, everyone was gunning for that role. The guys I was screen-testing against are amazing talents." Still, even though he doesn't regret making the film, Reynolds has made it his mission to riff on the superhero flick whenever given the chance — even in his other movies.
In the first "Deadpool," Reynolds' titular character makes an off-hand comment about green and computer-animated uniforms, a clear nod to the expansive use of CGI in "Green Lantern." "Deadpool 2" took this a step further with Deadpool using time-travel to shoot Ryan Reynolds after he reads the "Green Lantern" script for the first time. The actor has poked fun at the superhero film in other ways, too, including during the promotional campaign for "Free Guy" — in one interview, he and "Green Lantern" co-star Taika Waititi pretended to have never even heard of it. And let's not forget that virtual commencement speech for his old high school, where he joked that working on the DC film was his life's major success.
He didn't watch Green Lantern for a decade (and was pleasantly surprised when he did)
After spending a decade mocking "Green Lantern," Ryan Reynolds revisited the film for the first time in 2021, and the results weren't quite what you'd think. While awaiting the drop of "Zack Snyder's Justice League" (and celebrating St. Patrick's Day), Reynolds took to X (formerly Twitter) on March 17, 2021 with a "Lantern's Light" cocktail to sit down and officially watch the film. In his rewatch thread, the actor praised Angela Bassett's performance, criticized the way other actors were utilized, and noted that he still has his Green Lantern ring. By the end credits, he came to a conclusion fans might not have expected.
"Maybe it's the Aviation Gin talking, but #GreenLantern was nothing to fear," he tweeted. "Hundreds of incredible crew and cast members did amazing work — and while it's not perfect, it ain't a tragedy. Next time I won't wait a decade to watch." Only a year prior, the actor had warned folks away from even renting the film for $0.99, and, given its horrid Rotten Tomatoes scores (both critics and audiences trashed it), we've never questioned why. Still, there might be more glowing green gems in "Green Lantern" than immediately meets the eye, at least if Reynolds is to be believed.
Zack Snyder almost brought Reynolds back alongside a new Green Lantern
For a while, there was talk that Ryan Reynolds might make a cameo appearance in Zack Snyder's director's cut of "Justice League" as Hal Jordan. These rumors ran amok online in 2020 until the actor himself shot the idea down. "[The secret cameo is] not me," Reynolds revealed on X (formerly Twitter). "But what a cool pirate flag to cameo as Hal. Maybe it's another GL? But for me, the suit stays in the closet. I mean, computer." But there was some deeper truth to this rumor after all. Snyder himself admitted to wanting Reynolds for the role of Hal Jordan in his DC Extended Universe, though he would've been accompanied by another Green Lantern.
"There was another idea I had for the Green Lantern that wasn't Ryan, and so I thought that if we had gone down this path of Green Lantern, I would have had to have Ryan as the additional Lantern," Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter. "Filling out the Lantern Corps a little bit more than, say, just one Green Lantern." The other Green Lantern would have been John Stewart, played by Wayne T. Carr. Snyder originally wanted Stewart to visit Bruce Wayne at the end of "Justice League," but, because Warner Bros. apparently had other irons in the fire in terms of Green Lantern projects, it ended up being Martian Manhunter instead.
His DC failure set the stage for his Marvel merc
The most life-changing thing that "Green Lantern" did for Ryan Reynolds was to open the door for him to leave DC for good in favor of Marvel. Though Reynolds had previously been attached to Deadpool before "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," in which he appeared as a very different version of Deadpool, it wasn't until long after his first (failed) attempt to bring the character to life that the Merc With A Mouth was given a second chance on the big screen. "Green Lantern" definitely slowed the process, according to Reynolds. "Part of the reason 'Deadpool' wasn't greenlit right away was certainly because of me," the actor admitted to Variety in 2017. "If Robert Downey Jr. was playing it — I don't know how much greener a light you can get to make a movie."
On "Deadpool," Reynolds wore as many hats as necessary to make sure that the character remained true to his Marvel Comics origins and was appealing to fans of the source material, unlike his tenure as a Green Lantern. When "Deadpool" became a huge success, it was vindication for the actor. "It's really proof that literally anything can happen in Hollywood," he said. Had it not been for the failure of "Green Lantern," Reynolds may never have gotten the chance to play the character he was born to play in such an authentic way, so we should be grateful that things panned out the way they did.