Sebastian Stan Nearly Became Green Lantern Before Reynolds
Sebastian Stan was once in the running for Green Lantern, a part that ultimately went to Ryan Reynolds in the much-criticised 2011 film. Both Reynolds and director Martin Campbell have since reflected on the film’s troubled production.
Fifteen years ago, Sebastian Stan found himself on the verge of donning the iconic ring of a certain intergalactic lawman. Now rumoured to be circling a major role in the next Batman instalment—Harvey Dent, perhaps?—Stan recently shared a glimpse into his near-miss with superhero stardom. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he recalled stepping into an audition room filled with some rather familiar faces. “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.”
Ultimately, it was Ryan Reynolds who landed the part of Hal Jordan, the first human to join the Green Lantern Corps. The 2011 film assembled a cast brimming with talent: Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, Mark Strong as Thaal Sinestro, Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond, Angela Bassett, Tim Robbins, Geoffrey Rush, Taika Waititi, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Clancy Brown all featured. Despite the star power, the film failed to impress, earning a mere 25% on Rotten Tomatoes and quickly becoming a byword for superhero misfires.
Behind the Scenes: A Troubled Production
Director Martin Campbell, reflecting on the project while promoting his more recent work, Cleaner, offered a candid assessment of what went wrong. He admitted to Variety that his lack of enthusiasm for comic book adaptations may have been a factor. “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.”
Campbell’s detachment from the source material seemed to echo throughout the production, with the film’s villain, Parallax, failing to make much of an impression. The director’s remarks suggest a certain distance from the genre, perhaps explaining why the end result felt so out of step with audience expectations.
Reynolds’ Reflections: Lessons Learnt the Hard Way
Ryan Reynolds, for his part, has never shied away from discussing the film’s shortcomings. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CMO Council Summit, he described a period in his career when he felt unable to challenge creative decisions, even when he sensed trouble ahead.
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.'
He went on to reflect on the nature of responsibility in the film industry:
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.
The experience left a mark, with Reynolds reportedly rebuffing any suggestion of reprising the role for DC Studios, telling co-boss James Gunn in no uncertain terms to “get the f*** out of here!”