Part of the reason Warner Bros stalled a little with their big screen comic book adaptations is because, well, they weren't very good. Outside of Nolan's Batman films, they briefly made a foray away from their Big Two superheroes and took a chance on the more obscure Green Lantern. It looked like it might work out regardless of the lack of brand recognition, thanks to veteran Bond director Martin Campbell on board and crowd-pleasing Ryan Reynolds in the starring role. Surely that would be enough to get the cinema-going public on board with a cosmic superhero who wield an energy ring which creates anything he imagine, which he uses to police the universe, right? Well, it probably would, if the film hadn't been a total shambles. The critical and commercial failure of Green Lantern looked like the death knell for DC's Cinematic Universe, with the obvious sequel-setting-up scene after the credits taking on a rather sad air. Because it was never, ever going to happen. And yet the name shows up again on the upcoming Warner Bros movie schedule, with a new Green Lantern film looking to appear on screens in 2020. Presumably Reynolds will be out and the character will be recast, as happened when the Hulk got rebooted from Eric Bana to Edward Norton in the space of five years. The closest we got to a GL film before that was a comedy take starring Jack Black, so that could always be on the cards...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
