Ryan Reynolds Cites “Too Much Money” For ‘Green Lantern’ Failure & Questions If A ‘Free Guy’ Sequel Is Really Necessary

It’s hard to argue that Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds has finally hit his stride as an action star with a string of genre pics that audiences have reacted rather well to with the “Deadpool” movies, “Free Guy,” and “The Adam Project.” Those last two movies saw him work with filmmaker Shawn Levy (“Stranger Things,” “Real Steel” ) as the pair are getting ready to begin shooting “Deadpool 3” this spring in London with Hugh Jackman reprising the beloved Wolverine role one more time. Things haven’t always been rosy for Reynolds’ previous blockbuster attempts in the past with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (his first debut as a mangled version of Deadpool) and the DC Comics film “Green Lantern” not really setting the superhero fandom on fire, the latter becoming a notable flop and the Hal Jordan character has been placed in stasis since that 2011 film.

READ MORE: David Harbour Reached Out To ‘Green Lantern’ Star Ryan Reynolds For Advice Flopping After ‘Hellboy’ Bombed In 2019

During a recent chat with actor/comedian Rob Delany (“Deadpool 2“) at the Just For Laughs Festival in London (via Variety) where the two explored various points of his career, Reynolds was happy to share his own theory on what went wrong on “Green Lantern,” which was helmed by director Martin Campbell (“Casino Royale,” “Goldeneye“). The actor cited the studio just having too much money to play with and overspending on the film’s extensive visual effects (some scenes better than others) when there were hiccups the studio felt they could simply throw more money at the film’s multiple issues.

“There was just too many people spending too much money and when there was a problem rather than say, ‘Okay, let’s stop spending on special effects and let’s think about character. How do we replace this big spectacle thing – that isn’t working at all – with something that’s character based?’ and that just never – the thinking was never there to do that,” Reynolds explained. “And to their credit, it’s a very old-school way of looking at things. It’s just ‘Let’s just keep spending our way through this.’ And that was – it didn’t work. At the same time, there are 185 people that worked on that movie, they all had an amazing time, we loved shooting it. Truly, shooting the movie was a lot of fun. But, you know, sitting in that premiere, watching that, oh my God. It’s tough.”

Continuing the franchise talk, 20th Century Studios previously announced that a sequel to his hit original sci-fi comedy “Free Guy” was being written last year. However, when that second film was brought up, Reynolds suggests that they might not ultimately go in that direction and that they’re still trying crack a worthwhile idea while also questioning if every movie that he makes even deserves a follow-up.

“There is the potential to do a sequel to ‘Free Guy,’ which would be fun,” Reynolds replied. “I would love it. But also like, does everything fucking have to be a sequel? I don’t know. Sometimes it’s OK to just do a movie and have it kick ass and then everyone go home.”

He added, “So you know, there’s a bit of a push and pull there, resisting the urge to just immediately say, ‘Ohh, doing a sequel will validate the first one.’ No, the first movie validates the first one and then you can leave it at that. So I don’t know, we’re still talking about it.”

Projects keep piling up for Reynolds and he’s only just starting to explore his contributions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Deadpool and has teased an openness to continue the character beyond solo adventures. With that in mind, we could maybe understand why the actor might want to pivot on the idea that every project needs or warrants a sequel. “Free Guy” certainly has its fans but could his time be spent better elsewhere? That’s really up to the actor since he’s also a producer/creative force on these films and has more of a creative say if things get made or not.