Sebastian Stan Nearly Became Green Lantern Before Ryan Reynolds

Sebastian Stan, who’s rumored to be in the running for a major part in next year’s The Batman sequel —possibly as Harvey “Two-Face” Dent—came close to playing a different DC icon over a decade ago. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Stan shared his experience auditioning for the lead in Green Lantern, surrounded by some serious competition. He recalled,

“I remember getting there, and it was like, me, Justin Timberlake, Jared Leto, Ryan Reynolds, and maybe one other person. And I'm looking at these guys, going, 'I'm f*****. There's no way this is happening for me.' Looking back, I'm almost glad it didn't because I don't know if I could have handled that level of attention like some of those guys.”

Hollywood Heavyweights Vied for the Role

Ultimately, Ryan Reynolds landed the part of Hal Jordan, the first human member of the Green Lantern Corps, in the 2011 blockbuster. The film boasted a star-studded cast, including Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, Mark Strong as Thaal Sinestro, Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond, Angela Bassett as Amanda Waller, Tim Robbins as Robert Hammond, Geoffrey Rush as Tomar-Re, Taika Waititi as Thomas Kalmaku, Michael Clarke Duncan as Kilowog, and Clancy Brown as Parallax. Despite the impressive lineup, the movie was panned by critics and audiences alike, earning just a 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The project’s failure left a lasting mark on Reynolds, who later joked that when DC Studios’ James Gunn approached him about reprising the role, he told him to

“get the f*** out of here!”

Director and Star Reflect on the Film’s Downfall

Martin Campbell, who directed Green Lantern, looked back on the film’s troubled production while promoting his movie Cleaner last year. He admitted that his lack of enthusiasm for comic book stories may have contributed to the film’s shortcomings. Campbell explained,

“I'd never done one before. I think quite honestly, if you're going to do a superhero movie, you have to be in that world a little bit, you know what I mean? You have to be excited by it. You have to have a background where you are part of that world, and you've been involved in that thing. And I wasn't. I also felt that Parallax, our bad guy, was just a cloud with a face on it — literally, that's all it was.”

Reynolds Opens Up About Creative Struggles

Reynolds has also been candid about his experience making the film. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CMO Council Summit, he described feeling powerless to speak up about creative decisions he disagreed with.

“You know, that was a time in my life when I was 'Yes, sir, no, sir. How high can I jump, sir?' You sit there, and you go, 'I have really strong thoughts and opinions on a creative matter,' and someone else on another movie, I remember, made a creative decision, and 'I thought, well, that's a nail in a coffin that I alone will lie in.'

They don't say, 'This producer's movie flopped,' or 'This director's [movie flopped].' That's me. So if I'm going to be on that headline, I'd like to be the architect of my own demise — or success.”