Warner Bros. Recognizes Deadpool’s Success With A Green Lantern Joke

Deadpool 2 is getting off to a great start, Warner Bros. congratulated Ryan Reynold’s in the most Deadpool way possible…by making a Green Lantern joke.

Before Deadpool was a giant success, Reynold’s was the star of DC and Warner Bros. heavily hyped Green Lantern movie. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t deliver at the box office and has been heavily jabbed at by critics, fans, and even Reynolds himself.

Warner Bros. is well aware of the film’s reputation, and in congratulating Reynolds on Deadpool 2’s success went with some self-deprecating humor. They shared an image of Reynolds in the film holding his Green Lantern ring with the caption “We tried to put a ring on it! #GreenLantern @VancityReynolds.”

You gotta admit, that’s pretty fantastic, right?

Green Lantern released in 2011, but ironically Reynolds was actually working on the script for the original Deadpool while he was filming it, unbeknownst to anyone else.

“The weird plot twist was, somehow, some way, Deadpool got reinvigorated at Fox while [Green Lantern] was happening. … What a lot of people don’t know is [writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick] flew to New Orleans and, while I was shooting Green Lantern, we were actually all together writing Deadpool.” Reynolds said, “We were breaking the story of the original Deadpool movie in a house that was being paid for by Green Lantern’s dime.” All the while, Reynolds worried that he might never be allowed to play Deadpool, even if the film moved forward, now that he had hitched his wagon to Green Lantern. “I thought, ‘If Green Lantern is a huge hit, they’re never gonna accept me as both, and if Green Lantern is a huge failure — which it ended up being — they’re never going to hire me.’ “

Green Lantern was produced on a budget of $200 million but only drew in $219 million worldwide. Reynolds is faring much better these days though, as Deadpool 2 amassed what Green Lantern made in its opening weekend in just one day, and it’s rated R. So yeah, things have changed quite a bit.

Josh Brolin’s Cable and Zazie Beetz’ Domino join beloved characters from the original like Colossus (Stefan Kapicic), Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Dopinder (Karan Soni), Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), and T.J. Miller (Weasel) in Deadpool 2. Deadpool is of course played by Ryan Reynolds.

Deadpool 2 is in theaters now, while X-Men: Dark Phoenix lands in theaters on February 14, 2019. The New Mutants is slated to hit theaters on August 2, 2019.