Ryan Reynolds admits he regrets starring in one of his major movies that ended up being a ‘disaster’

Hollywood heavyweight Ryan Reynolds may be best known for playing Deadpool, but years prior, the Canadian actor played a different superhero.

Last night (26 April), the 48-year-old celebrated the promotion of football club Wrexham, who he co-owns with Rob McElhenney, to the Championship - making it three promotions in three seasons - the first time a team has ever managed that.

It's an achievement that the actor is very proud of, but when it comes to moments in his career that he may not look back too fondly on, one film comes to mind straight away.

Released in 2011, the superhero film was where he met wife Blake Lively, so at least Reynolds can reflect on the title with some positivity.

In case you hadn't guessed, we're talking about Green Lantern and you can view the trailer here:

Reynolds played the main character, Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, while Lively played his love interest, Carol Ferris.

You may have noticed a couple of digs towards the DC film, which was a box office flop, throughout the Deadpool films, but what does Reynolds really think of it?

While promoting Deadpool & Wolverine, the actor made it clear that he was not proud of Green Lantern in the slightest, going down as one of the biggest box office failures ever.

Grossing just $237.2 million against its $200 million budget, he has labelled the film as a disaster, admitting that the only way 'to process it' was to rewatch it.

Speaking in 2023, he admitted at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival: “There was just too many people spending too much money and when there was a problem rather than say, ‘OK, let’s stop spending on special effects and let’s think about character.’”

Adding that they never thought to do that, he said: “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.”

Green Lantern was a flop in every sense of the word (Warner Bros.)

Reynolds did reveal that along with the 185 people working on the film, everyone on set enjoyed filming it, saying it was 'a lot of fun.'

“But, you know, sitting in that premiere, watching that... oh my God, it’s tough,” the actor said.

Reflecting on how he felt in the moment, he candidly admitted: “The words were ‘holy s***’ and ‘no, no!’

Saying that he didn't want to repeat what he felt that day again in his career, Reynolds also explained: “I really spent the following years just owning as much as I could, it was the only way to kind of process it.”

Speaking to People this week, Reynolds revealed that the film is actually his two-year-old son's favourite movie and that his experience on set is still influencing how he makes films today.

Reynolds has more of a positive outlook on the film nowadays (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME)

With a more reflective tone, he said that he'd 'learned all the most amazing lessons I could ever have in the creative space from that movie.'

He once again said that they prioritised 'spectacle' over everything else, recalling: "I remember suggesting, we could write a scene in the movie where people talk.

"I don't know. There could be a fun exchange of dialogue. It doesn't cost anything. And they would say, 'Just spectacle. Spectacle.'"

He concluded: "I look back now, it's what really shapes my point of view."

That might explain why the Deadpool films have an emphasis on dialogue and jokes.