Green Lantern is shaping up to be one of the biggest hits of the summer when it arrives in theaters on June 17. Green Lantern 2 will likely follow in the near future, if Green Lantern is successful, although it won't be directed by Martin Campbell.

Here's an excerpt from a recent magazine article which indicates director Martin Campbell won't return to direct Green Lantern 2.

"Inevitably, chat turns to the possibility of follow-ups. Campbell admits it will be nice to have all the backstory and complicated rules of the character already taken care of. 'This film has become the instruction manual if they do any further ones. It's what we call pipe laying,' he says. Not that he has plans to return for a sequel - like Bond, he loves 'em and leaves 'em."

Martin Campbell has employed this strategy before, on two separate occasions involving James Bond movies. He directed the 1995 Bond movie Goldeneye, although he did not direct any of the other Bond movies which starred Pierce Brosnan. In 2006, he helped reinvent the James Bond franchise again with Casino Royale, but he did not direct the follow-up, Quantum of Solace.

We reported last August that screenwriter Michael Goldenberg was hired to write the Green Lantern 2 screenplay. As of now, it is unclear who will direct the sequel.