It's OK: Ryan Reynolds never watched 'Green Lantern' either

Today in Hard Same entertainment news, Ryan Reynolds admitted that he never even watched his first superhero movie in full, the 2011 flop Green Lantern.

“Look, I’ve never seen the full final version of Green Lantern," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I saw a very late stage rough cut of the film."

The topic came up in an interview promoting the upcoming sequel to Reynolds much more successful superhero franchise, Deadpool. In the satirical, meta, and R-rated surprise 2016 hit, the Reynold's character, Wade Wilson, takes some pretty self-depricating jabs at his first failed superhero flick.

While being carted away to the experiments that lead to his super powers, Wilson tells the bad guys to not make his costume, "green…or animated!" Then there's the clear shot of a Green Lantern baseball card falling out of his wallet during the now iconic slow-motion opening scene introducing Deadpool.

However, Reynolds was quick to point out that it wasn't because he didn't like the movie that almost sank his career. "I have movies that have been received pretty well that I haven’t seen, and then I have movies that I have seen 100 times that people don’t like but I just like. The Green Lantern [joke in Deadpool] to me is just sort of, I don’t know, kind of fun. It’s me just taking the piss out of me, but it’s more Wade though."

But actually, way back when, Reynolds (who is a big comic book fan) begged Fox to consider doing Deadpool instead of Green Lantern. They said no. It's hard to imagine but, back in 2011, the failure of Green Lantern (critical opinion aside, reports say it grossed a measly $220 million worldwide on a $200 million) cast the entire push for superhero franchises into doubt. 

At the time, Marvel was making a great case for them, with the enormous success of Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011) and Captain America (2011). But Green Lantern took the wind out of the sails for critics who were growing weary of superhero blockbusters.

"I represented the death of the superhero for a while," Reynolds said in a 2016 Variety interview.

But is there any sweeter redemption than getting to say "I told you so?" Reynolds fought tooth and nail to release Deadpool, and it made over $783 million worldwide on an astounding $58 million budget (give or take).

In the end, Reynolds' victory is much more than just getting to be right. He might've represented the death of the superhero movie in 2011, but today he represents a whole line of new and original possibilities in an oversaturated landscape. In a sea of Marvel and DC films that tend to feel focus-tested to hell, Deadpool proved that there taking risks can lead to huge payoffs.

So we totally feel you, Ryan. And that's why we're going to go see Deadpool 2 three times when it opens on May 18.