Ryan Reynolds Has Multiple Superheroes Up His Sleeve

There have been plenty of broody, angst-ridden superheroes soaring across the big screen lately. Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern is not one of them.

“A lot of the current iterations of superheroes are a little bit darker and a little bit more serious in tone,” Reynolds tells PopcornBiz of his take how his Hal Jordan – the test-pilot-turned-ringslinging-space-cop at the center of “Green Lantern," coming to theaters this Friday – differs from the current comic book crop hitting the multiplex. “The thing that I distilled from diving into that mythology and that universe is that there's a tone that's a little bit different. It's a bit of a throwback in that sense. There's a lot of fun with the character. He's not a character that's overly funny, but he's witty.”

“I always kind of say he's that guy that can throw a punch, tell a joke and kiss a girl,” Reynolds laughs. “There's something really iconic and fun about that guy, because anything is possible with that guy.”

“For me, there wasn't any particular narrative or storyline because we were telling an origin story in this film,” he explains. “It was mostly just finding out who Hal Jordan was, and also distilling what it is that the fanboys who love this character, what it is that they love about him and making sure that can be found up on screen. If they love it, there's a good chance that a broader audience is also going to love it as they're being introduced to this character for the first time.”

It’s not Reynolds’ first time breathing cinematic life into a super-powered alter ego: he’s the only actor who’s worked in both comic book camps, playing Marvel’s mutant mayhem-maker Deadpool in 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” before crossing over to DC’s emerald warrior, and he wouldn’t mind reprising the Merc With a Mouth.

“Growing up I read a bit of 'X-Men' stuff,” he says. “My brother introduced me to Deadpool, but beyond that I didn't know that much about comics. But Deadpool is a character that I love and I got a great opportunity to play him in more sort of an ancillary sense in a film, which was great because it allowed me to jump in and play him, but then not be committed to too much beyond that. I do have that film that's in development still and we'll see what happens with that, but for the most part Green Lantern is the first real iconic superhero role that I've ever had the great opportunity to play, and I'm pretty damn grateful for that.”

And Reynolds - who at one time was also considered to play the Flash - does have his eye on one more prime part from the comic book world, he insists. “By 2014 I'm going to do Wonder Woman, but after that I think I'm going to hang it up. I'm going to hang up the lasso and the short, short, shorts.”

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