Green Lantern Director Reveals How Ryan Reynolds Could Have Saved the DC Movie

Green Lantern director Martin Campbell shares how he thinks Ryan Reynolds could have saved the failed DC movie. Speaking with The Direct, the filmmaker reflected on the comic book adaptation and pondered how it could have fared better. In retrospect, Campbell wishes Reynolds had gotten involved with the film behind the scenes and helped write the script. Alluding to Reynolds’ success with the Deadpool franchise, Campbell thinks the actor’s input in the writing process would have been valuable. Though Green Lantern didn’t turn out as well as everyone hoped, the director still had a fun time making the film.

“We actually had a terrific time on the film. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him and with Blake Lively,” Campbell said. “She was terrific as well. And he’s always, he’s got a great whip, you know, Ryan. In fact, I wish to God he had written the script, and it would have been great. But he’s always taking jabs at it. And fair enough. Though, listen, it was a big success for him because he met Blake Lively.”

Released in 2011, Green Lantern was designed to be the start of a new superhero franchise for Warner Bros. Unfortunately, the film was a critically panned box office bomb that only grossed $237.2 million worldwide. A sequel never came to fruition, and Reynolds eventually moved to Marvel’s Deadpool franchise, spearheading a trilogy of well-received hits. Last summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine earned over $1 billion.

[RELATED – Green Lantern Was a Bad Movie, Even in Sonic the Hedgehog’s Universe]

Campbell made similar comments about the Green Lantern script in an interview with ComicBook earlier this year, suggesting Reynolds would have been a strong addition to the writing team. Though Reynolds wasn’t involved in penning the script, his experience on Green Lantern taught him a valuable lesson. He learned to emphasize “character over spectacle,” which is something that serves as a guiding principle for his Deadpool movies.

One of the many aspects of Green Lantern that received criticism was the underwhelming script, which struggled to tell a compelling origin story for Hal Jordan. Though Reynolds’ writing credits to date (two Deadpool features) lean more comedic in nature, he’s smart enough to understand what each individual film needs to be successful. If he got involved with writing Green Lantern, he probably wouldn’t have tried to turn Hal into a Wade Wilson knockoff. Going by his “character over spectacle” rule, Reynolds likely would have crafted something that best fit the Green Lantern characters, piecing together an entertaining space opera tale where the special effects complimented a strong narrative. Reynolds has recalled that during production, he suggested shooting just a “fun exchange of dialogue” when he noticed how much money was being poured into other areas of the film.

It’d be interesting to see how Green Lantern might have turned out if Reynolds had gotten involved with the script. Perhaps the film would have been more successful, spawning the franchise Warner Bros. envisioned when they greenlit the project. That would have probably meant no Deadpool, since Reynolds would have been busy with Green Lantern sequels, and actors typically don’t headline DC and Marvel films simultaneously. Though Reynolds isn’t involved with the upcoming Lanterns TV series, hopefully James Gunn and the DC Studios crew take the “character over spectacle” guideline to heart, giving the fan-favorite comic the proper adaptation it deserves.