Director Martin Campbell Explains Why He Wishes He Never Made Green Lantern

JB Augustine |

May 5, 2022

Source: Green Lantern (2011), Warner Bros.

It seems the director of 2011’s Green Lantern, Martin Campbell, agrees with fans and star Ryan Reynolds: the film was a bad idea he regrets signing up for.

Campbell spoke with ScreenRant recently and told the site he doesn’t plan on returning to the superhero genre as he thinks he isn’t very good at working within its confines.

“No, I’m not good at superhero movies. Green Lantern? People didn’t like that movie, and frankly, I shouldn’t have done it. I did it because I’ve never done one,” he said.

“You work just as hard on the movies that really are not successful as you do on the ones that are. I think there are people better qualified than me to do a superhero movie,” he added.

One issue with Green Lantern was there were too many cooks in the kitchen, including DC TV uber-producer Greg Berlanti, with their hands on the screenplay.

Many fans felt they were juggling too many elements at one time, enough for two movies. Keeping the first movie on Earth and saving Oa for later might have made for an okay or presentable ring-slinging adventure as opposed to the cosmic one they went with.

The film was supposed to be where DC’s shared film universe started but those plans were quickly abandoned and forgotten in favor of Man of Steel and the Snyderverse.

There were rumors Snyder was courting Ryan Reynolds to come back and play Hal Jordan in his Justice League trilogy. It turned out, however, he initially planned for a different actor to play Hal and he’d let John Stewart be the main Lantern of his films.

Actor Wayne T. Carr was cast as Stewart in The Snyder Cut and he was going to make his first appearance at Bruce Wayne’s doorstep to warn him about Darkseid and the coming invasion from Apokolips.

Carr’s side of the scene was shot with a green screen in Snyder’s driveway but Warner Bros. requested he use Martian Manhunter instead since he was masquerading as General Swanwick anyway, and wouldn’t conflict with plans for HBO Max’s Green Lantern series.

That series, produced by Berlanti and Geoff Johns, is expected to be the exclusive pad for the relaunch of the Emerald IP and everything else that comes with it – the Corps and Lanterns past and present, such as Hal and John.

Many of the details and some of the cast are still a secret, but it’s been disclosed the first season will be 10 episodes and take place in different timelines. Principal shooting should commence in Los Angeles very soon.

An additional Green Lantern Corps movie is listed as in development under Johns’s Mad Ghost banner. As far as we know, it’s still in the works, but nothing new about it has been reported in a long time – not even an official cancellation from on high.

Martin Campbell’s latest movie, Memory starring Liam Neeson, is now in theaters. Like Green Lantern, it’s being savaged by critics who have given it 31 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

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