Ryan Reynolds Has A Funny Take On Green Lantern Being His Son’s ‘Favorite’ Movie

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Landing a starring role and producing a hugely successful superhero film like Deadpool and Wolverine is a fantastic way to overcome past disappointments. The movie’s billion-dollar box office success likely helped Ryan Reynolds move past the failure of Green Lantern, one of the biggest flops in recent years. However, he still gets reminded of the DC film frequently, and it’s not just online critics who bring it up.

Although the 2011 movie Green Lantern wasn’t a hit with most moviegoers, it eventually became special to Ryan Reynolds because his son grew to love it. (Someone at TopMob also liked it, but that’s less significant, of course.) Reynolds shared this story during a Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute Q&A when asked about a professional setback.

It’s tough to pick a most creative work, but some might suggest Green Lantern. I know it sounds funny, but my son loves that movie and watches it constantly. It’s taken a lot of effort for me to be able to walk past the TV without thinking about how things could have been improved.

It wasn’t surprising that some people laughed when he mentioned the DC hero known for wearing a ring. The movie featuring that character pretty much ended any hope of seeing Green Lantern prominently featured in live-action again, and even the Arrowverse didn’t follow through with giving the character Diggle the title, despite what fans wanted. Luckily, he remained important in DC’s animated projects afterward, and I’m really excited about HBO’s Lanterns finally giving these characters the recognition they deserve. But we can talk about that another time.

Most people prefer to forget their past failures, but Ryan Reynolds seems to be constantly reminded of his. He’s probably proud his son enjoys watching one of his movies, but there are definitely other films he’d rather his son liked more. He’s hoping his son isn’t fixated on it forever, and is delaying any potential embarrassment until the boy is older – especially when it comes to movies like Buried or the Deadpool series.

I was really interested to hear Ryan Reynolds talking about how important it is for his kids – and Blake Lively’s, of course – to see the less glamorous side of what we do as actors. He was saying it’s easy for them to only see the red carpets and the success, and he worries about them understanding everything that goes into it all. He was explaining why he feels it’s important for them to get a full picture of his career, not just the shiny parts.

My children only see my successes, and that’s my biggest concern. People are always congratulating me and asking for photos, and I usually go along with it. But my kids need to understand that failure is a crucial part of achieving anything, so I’ve made a point of talking about my setbacks and how they actually paved the way for my accomplishments.

It feels strange using one of their beloved films to illustrate a failure, but they’ll likely understand the importance of this lesson better as they mature.

Looking back, I think Green Lantern actually taught Ryan Reynolds how important really good dialogue is – just as important as those big action scenes. That probably played a big part in why he wanted Deadpool to be so funny and constantly cracking jokes when they started making those movies. Whether that’s a good thing is up to each person, of course, but for me, it totally works!

He definitely dodged a bullet by avoiding that awful bowl cut hairstyle, unlike Nathan Fillion’s character. That haircut could have ruined his career back in 2014, and maybe even prevented his relationship with Blake Lively from ever happening. If that had happened, he wouldn’t have had a son who loved watching Green Lantern constantly. Seriously, never underestimate how much a bad haircut can change your life!

It’s much more likely we’ll see Deadpool appear in a future Avengers movie than Ryan Reynolds joining James Gunn’s DC Universe. Reynolds playfully turned down the idea, even jokingly telling Gunn to “back off” when asked. However, we might still see some mention of it in a DC project.

Green Lantern is currently available to stream via HBO Max subscription.

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2025-12-01 02:11