Ryan Reynolds has finally found his superhero movie groove playing Deadpool, but it wasn't an easy journey getting there. A few years after his appearance in Blade Trinity, Reynolds first stepped into Wade Wilson's shoes for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but that version of the character was...not well received, to put it lightly. Then he played Hal Jordan in DC's Green Lantern, but he never stopped hoping that a faithful Deadpool movie would become a reality. In fact, while wearing the emerald ring, Reynolds was actually working in private on bringing the Merc with the Mouth to life with Deadpool's writers.
During his appearance on THR's Awards Chatter podcast, Ryan Reynolds mentioned how while Green Lantern was shooting, that's when Deadpool was "reinvigorated" at 20th Century Fox, at least for a time. So when he wasn't playing the Emerald Knight, Reynolds spent his off-time with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to perfect the Deadpool story. He explained:
... What a lot of people don't know is [writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick] flew to New Orleans and, while I was shooting Green Lantern, we were actually all together writing Deadpool. We were breaking the story of the original Deadpool movie in a house that was being paid for by Green Lantern's dime.
So Ryan Reynolds had his mind on two superheroes back when Green Lantern was shooting in 2010. Out in public and in front of the camera, he was playing Hal Jordan, test pilot and the first human ring-slinger. When back at his New Orleans pad, he, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were busy tackling the Deadpool script on the off-chance it might eventually get made. This was killing two birds with one stone in an amusing way, complete with DC and Warner Bros-paid housing. However, Reynolds also mentioned during the THR interview he was worried that he might never be able to play Deadpool one way or the other because he had chosen Green Lantern instead. Fortunately for him, that didn't prove to be a problem.
Green Lantern was intended to kick off a franchise, but due to an underwhelming commercial performance and negative critical reception, plans for a sequel were scrapped. The DC Extended Universe is now planning to reboot the property with Green Lantern Corps, but Ryan Reynolds has moved on to his ultimate superhero destination. Three years after Green Lantern's release, animated Deadpool test footage was leaked online and met with acclaim from fans, which eventually resulted in Fox finally green-lighting the movie. Fast forward to now, where it's been a year since Deadpool was a critical and commercial powerhouse and a sequel is in development. We should be thankful Reynolds, Reese and Wernick poured that extra time into Deadpool during the Green Lantern days.
Deadpool 2 is slated to hit theaters sometime in 2018, while Green Lantern Corps will be released on July 24, 2020.
