Ryan Reynolds Admits Regret Over One of His Biggest Flops

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Ryan Reynolds has joked about regretting one of his biggest Hollywood roles: Green Lantern.

In a funny mid-credits scene in Deadpool 2, the actor jokingly referenced his own past failure. Deadpool travels back in time and shoots Ryan Reynolds while he’s reading the script for the movie Green Lantern. Reynolds then quips, “You’re welcome, Canada,” playfully acknowledging how poorly that film performed.

In a 2016 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ryan Reynolds shared why the movie wasn’t successful. He explained, “Deadpool always understood its own identity.”

You know, looking back at Green Lantern, I don’t think anyone really understood what that movie was trying to be. It felt like the studio prioritized the marketing – posters and a release date – way before they had a solid story. Honestly, at the time, it seemed like a massive opportunity for me, so I was really eager to be involved, even if the whole thing didn’t quite work out.

Years later, Reynolds reflected on the film, calling it a “disaster.” He explained that the production suffered from excessive spending and a lack of focus on the story and characters. Instead of cutting back on expensive effects when problems arose, the filmmakers never considered prioritizing character development.

They’re sticking to an outdated approach, essentially trying to solve the problem by simply spending more money. And, as history shows, that hasn’t been effective.

Reynolds described watching the finished film as a bizarre experience. He said his initial reaction was a stunned, expletive-filled outburst – “holy s” and “no, no!” – and that the feeling was unsettling enough he didn’t want to relive it. Afterwards, he focused on taking control of the situation as much as possible, finding it was the only way to make sense of everything.

Most critics agreed with Ryan Reynolds’ own negative assessment of the film. On Rotten Tomatoes, Green Lantern received a low 25% approval rating from 248 reviews, with critics calling it “noisy, overproduced, and thinly written,” and noting it wasted a large budget and the rich history of the comic books. Metacritic gave the film a score of 39 out of 100, also indicating generally negative reviews. Moviegoers surveyed by CinemaScore gave it a B grade.

While many reviews were critical, a few praised certain elements. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote the movie “serves up all the requisite elements with enough self-deprecating humor to suggest it doesn’t take itself too seriously.”

Film critic Roger Ebert praised Reynolds for fearlessly embracing the character’s flaws, calling it a sign of a talented actor. However, other critics, including Manohla Dargis from The New York Times and Christy Lemire of the Associated Press, found the movie lacking due to uninspired writing and overuse of special effects.

Even though the movie received a lot of criticism, Ryan Reynolds has playfully acknowledged its reputation. He’s started making fun of it himself, often using Green Lantern as an example of how difficult it can be to make a successful, large-scale superhero film.

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2026-01-05 12:17