A former DC star wasn’t even remotely interested in entertaining James Gunn’s joke of joining the DCU

With James Gunn at the helm of the DCU, several members of the old regime have shared their desire to come back for more, however, there’s one of them who has absolutely no desire to dive into DC ever again, and we can’t really blame them.

In November of 2022, Gunn and Peter Safran became the co-bosses of DC Films marking a huge change in the franchise’s future and upcoming slate of films. This meant that almost everyone who had been a part of the previous films would not be coming back, at least not in the same roles.

During the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, Gunn revealed that he had approached former DC star Ryan Reynolds to join the DCU — as a joke, and the reaction from the former Green Lantern was exactly what you’d expect.

“Ryan doesn’t give a sh*t. One of the first people I talked to after getting the job was Ryan Reynolds. I’m like, ‘You coming back?’ He’s like, ‘Get the f*** out of here.’ I’m joking! I wasn’t really telling him to come back.”

If you’ve heard Reynolds speak about his Green Lantern film before, or you have ever seen an interview with him in general or one of his Marvel Deadpool films then it shouldn’t be any mystery why he wouldn’t want to come back to DC. His time as Hal Jordan was by far a career low point for the actor, and something he’s done well to distance himself from.

There are a few reasons that the Green Lantern movie flopped, and they really have nothing to do with Reynolds himself. The biggest problems were the story, and how it made use of iconic DC characters. Comic fans always want to see faithful adaptions of their favorite action heroes onscreen, and Green Lantern did a terrible job at providing that. Coupled with the terrible CGI that was used for absolutely everything in the film including Reynolds’s super suit, the movie was primed for failure, and critics and fans didn’t hold back.

Right now more than 10 years later, the movie has a terrible 25% reviewer score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an audience rating that’s only slightly better at 45%. Time has not been kind to this film, but there is a glimmer of hope for fans of the comic character.

Green Lantern is coming back to the DCU, but it just won’t be with Reynolds in the role. Lanterns is a new series set to be released in the future that will introduce the Green Lantern comic characters to the DCU. There have already been three Green Lantern Corps members cast and they will be played by Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, and Nathan Fillion. Hopefully with Gunn at the helm and a new story to tell, we can finally get the Green Lantern adaption we deserve.

If you’ve never seen the 2011 Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds and want to make up your own opinion then you can stream the movie on Amazon Video or Apple TV now.