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WB Reminds Deadpool Fans to Buy Green Lantern on Blu-ray Too
Deadpool 2 is now available for digital purchase and Warner Bros. took the opportunity to troll fans by encouraging them to also buy Ryan Reynolds' other superhero movie, the oft-maligned Green Lantern. Starring Reynolds as Hal Jordan, the 2011 film was widely panned for lackluster and overused special effects, a by-the-numbers story and a poor interpretation of the villain Parallax. Reynolds himself has spoken out about his dissatisfaction with the movie but has also suggested that the experience perhaps indirectly led to his far more successful role as Wade Wilson in Deadpool, with the famous "leaked" test footage being filmed on the very same weekend Green Lantern was released in theaters.
Given Deadpool's penchant for edgy humor and breaking the fourth wall, it perhaps wasn't too surprising to see Ryan Reynolds take shots at the Green Lantern debacle in both of his Deadpool movies. Highlights include a reference to Hal Jordan's CGI costume and a promo poster that directly copied one used by Warner Bros. but with Deadpool wearing a candy ring instead of a green Power Ring. Deadpool 2 took the joke even further by including a mid-credits scene in which Wade Wilson travels back in time and shoots Ryan Reynolds in the head to stop him ever agreeing to appear in Green Lantern.
Warner Bros. have largely responded to Deadpool's jokes about Green Lantern in good humor and to celebrate the digital release of Deadpool 2, they posted a tweet encouraging fans to "own Green Lantern today" alongside an epic picture of Reynolds as Hal Jordan and two heart emojis, one green and one red.
Since the Deadpool franchise is produced by a rival studio, it would be easy for Warner Bros. to stand by their own product and ignore the outpouring of hate towards Green Lantern. As such, it's somewhat refreshing to see the studio embrace the gags, as they did with another tweet back when Deadpool 2 first hit theaters which stated "we tried to put a ring on it."
In doing this, Warner Bros. is perhaps attempting to counter the reputation their superhero movies have for being overly dark and serious - something Wade Wilson also called out in the trailer for Deadpool 2. One of the biggest criticisms of the current DC movie franchise is a lack of humorous or light-hearted moments but the studio has publicly stated their desire to address this and it's possible that their acknowledgment of Green Lantern's failure is part of a general attempt to lighten up.
The impending prospect of Warner Bros. taking another stab at the Green Lantern character could also be a factor in their attempts to distance themselves from the 2011 Ryan Reynolds movie. Although many fans were expecting at least a reference to the ring-bearing hero in Justice League, a Green Lantern movie set in the Worlds of DC franchise called Green Lantern Corps. is in production with Geoff Johns acting as writer and producer. Perhaps Warner Bros. want to dispel the memories of their last attempt before unleashing a new version of Green Lantern upon the world.
Release Dates:
. X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) release date: Feb 14, 2019
. New Mutants (2019) release date: Aug 02, 2019
