If there is one role that you would expect Ryan Reynolds to avoid returning to, it would probably be Green Lantern. The ill-received DC movie was a complete flop in 2011, and Reynolds even showed contempt for the film by having Deadpool go back in time and kill Reynolds before he could make the movie in one of the final scenes of Deadpool 2. For that reason, James Gunn debunking one fan’s belief that Reynolds was planning to play Green Lantern again for Zack Snyder is not really that much of a surprise.Gunn addressed the comment while responding to some of his followers on Twitter when one note, in particular, attracted his attention. Someone tagged Gunn in a tweet that questioned the DC Studio’s CEO about plans for the future, asking, “What about the almighty Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern?” Gunn shut down the comment, responding:
“That’s not a priority for me and even much less of one for [Reynolds].”
Someone else jumped on the back of this to say that Reynolds was planning on coming back to the DCU for Snyder’s universe, but Gunn quickly shot back a simple, “He wasn’t.” However, considering the lack of love out there for Reynolds’ Green Lantern movie, it is probably all for the best, and as Gunn said, Reynolds has no shortage of work right now to be returning to something like that.
Will Green Lantern Still Be Part of the DCU Plan?
For now, Green Lantern will get another shot at success with a new TV series still in production in some form. Unfortunately, what this form will end up being is still unknown thanks to several changes made to the show, including the loss of showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith, who completed an entire eight-episode script before the show, originally called Green Lantern Corps, seemed to change focus and direction.
The original plan for the series would have featured multiple Green Lanterns coming together, including Hal Jordan and John Stewart. The HBO Max series managed to go through several writers since its first conception. Still, with multiple attempts not managing to get into production, it seems that the changes made to try and make the story more linear have led to its current position.
One thing that can be taken from some of Gunn’s recent comments is that Green Lantern certainly seems to have some future as part of the DCU, but whether that will remain the TV show or something else is one of the many things that only a select group of people currently know. Regardless of what success may come for Green Lantern under Gunn and Peter Safran’s guidance, the one thing that everyone seems to agree on is Ryan Reynolds’ take on Hal Jordan and Green Lantern is something that will remain confined to the past.