Key Sentence:
- During an online Q&A session, Green Lantern director Martin Campbell said he had no interest in making a Marvel film.
- Green Lantern director Martin Campbell has no interest in directing a Marvel film.
Before Ryan Reynolds got Deadpool right, his first superhero raid wasn’t very successful. So instead, Campbell runs Reynolds Green Lantern, an initiative from 2011 aimed at starting new franchises. The film follows Hal Jordan (Reynolds) after discovering an alien ring that connects him to the hull of the Green Lanterns. And make him a hero. It was two years before Warner Bros. launched the DCEU with Man of Steel.
Despite the high expectations attached to Green Lantern, it failed to make a good impression on the audience. Since then, Reynolds has often found ways to make fun of him, whether in the Deadpool 2 finale or promoting his new film Free Guy with his co-star Taika Waititi. Meanwhile, Campbell has made superhero support films and is back in action with films like The Foreigner and the upcoming release of The Protégé.
To promote The Protégé, Campbell Green Lantern attended an AMD session on Reddit this week.
The extensive conversation includes his work on the film Zorro and James Bond’s GoldenEye and Casino Royale. At some point, Campbell was asked if there was a genre he still wanted to try and would like to have. “I would love to work in comedy! I think I’ll do a great job,” he wrote. Then he turned meaningfully and added, “Marvel? Forget it. I fucked her once, never again.” This almost certainly applies to Green Lantern, and in the same session, he implied he was fighting Warner Bros. to make the film.
Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern
Now that Campbell is immersed in the superhero genre, it’s no surprise that he wouldn’t be interested in working with Marvel. Despite many directors having had success with Marvel, such as the Rousseau brothers and Taika Whitey, the studio struggled with others.
Thor: Dark World director Alan Taylor spoke openly about his “horrific” experiences working on the film. Edgar Wright even withdrew from his long-running film The Ant-Man due to creative differences. So if Campbell is having trouble with Warner Bros. while working on Green Lantern, it was understandable that he would be wary of moving to another studio with a superhero vibe.
Apart from studio intervention, it turns out that Campbell isn’t a fan of comics either. Action is his favorite place, and as he said, he is ready to get into comedy when the opportunity arises. Campbell gave the superheroes a chance with the Green Lantern, but it wasn’t for him.