Ryan Reynolds Promises ‘Deadpool’ Won’t Be Another ‘Green Lantern’

ScreenCrush’s Comic Strip is a weekly roundup of the hottest superhero movie/TV news items. From Marvel to DC and points in between, if it pertains to costumed comic book heroes, we’re covering it here, bringing you our expert analysis. This week, Ryan Reynolds chats about Deadpool and Jesse Eisenberg explains his Lex Luthor.

Jesse Eisenberg Talks About His Lex Luthor

Everyone involved with Batman vs. Superman wants you to know that their movie is Very Serious Business. It’s not just a comic book movie – it’s a movie about Stuff and Things.

In a new interview, Jesse Eisenberg doubles down on this tone, with the new Lex Luthor describing the role as one of the best he’s ever had. It seems that this take on Superman’s arch-nemesis surprised him because it actually gave him a chance to act. We’re not sure if that’s Eisenberg complimenting this movie or throwing shade on all over superhero movies, but we’ll take it:

In a lot of ways Luthor is more of a stretch than any character you would do in an independent movie, which is normally the place you stretch. So in that way it was not at all compromised. If anything it was the best, most advantageous role I’ve ever been given.

Eisenberg also addressed the themes of the movie, speaking about how the film will directly address how the world would actually deal with a god-like alien coming to Earth and punching buildings into powder:

How can one man — Superman — have so much power? These are the kind of things that we talk about when we think about authoritarian states, when we talk about Vladimir Putin having a strong foothold in Eastern Europe. They’re addressing geopolitics in this movie and not in a way that’s pretentious or esoteric.

To be fair, the absolute best Lex Luthor stories are those that treat the villain with some degree of understanding and respect. At his best, Luthor isn’t some maniac. He’s just a very smart guy who is genuinely fearful of what Superman can do to the world. For all of the self-important bluster surrounding this movie, this seems like one aspect that everyone may have nailed.

Ryan Reynolds Explains Why Deadpool Isn’t Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds is never going to live Green Lantern down, but at least he’s turning into the swerve. Like any actor working in the age of the internet, he’s unafraid to talk crap about his past failures … especially when he’s promoting another movie.

The trailer for Deadpool already featured one joke at the expense of Green Lantern, and Reynolds has more where that came from. In a new interview, man behind the Merc With a Mouth discussed how his new superhero movie couldn’t be more different than his previous debacle. The trick to not repeating his past mistakes, he says, was to make a modestly budgeted movie:

Deadpool was different because there wasn’t a big budget attached to it. There was not a tremendous responsibility to meet some kind of bottom line. Those kinds of superhero movies when you’re out front, there’s a vast and quite frightening budget attached to them. This one had a super-reasonable budget, and it was subversive and a little bit different, and to me a little refreshing in the comic-book world. But you always have trepidation. When you’re out front, you have trepidation.

We haven’t seen Deadpool, but Reynolds is certainly right in some capacity. As a film budget gets bigger, more people have stake in the project. More people care. More people manipulate and get involved and transform movies into bloated messes that please no one. Deadpool stands a much better chance than so much of its brethren because it was made at a smaller scale. Even if it’s not good, it stands a strong chance of just being unique.

In other news, Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld paid a visit to the Amazing Hawaii Comic-Con, where he appeared on a panel, got really excited about the new movie, and talked up the supporting cast:

You guys have seen a glimpse of him in the trailer; at San Diego in Hall H, they showed a little bit more of Colossus … You are going to love Colossus in Deadpool. He’s in it a good amount; he doesn’t just walk through the movie.

So there you have it. Deadpool won’t just feature a cameo from a previously established X-Men movie character, it will feature him in a prominent role. We’re very curious how this goofy movie will gel with the larger X-Men movie universe, especially if it’s a hit. Can you imagine Ryan Reynolds wisecracking next to a bald James McAvoy and throwing katanas at Michael Fassbender? We can’t either.