It’s no secret that Ryan Reynolds has had a rocky relationship with superheroes. Before the actor hit a home run earlier this year with Deadpool, he’d previously starred in two doomed films that had him playing iconic characters from comic books. The first time, of course, was when he suited up as the Merc with a Mouth, albeit a very different version than what we got in Deadpool. It was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a film that’s better off forgotten about.
After that he starred in Green Lantern, where Reynolds played the titular hero. Though he didn’t necessarily do a bad job in the role, the movie itself was a disaster and bashed by fans and critics alike. And so, with two swings and two misses, Reynolds set out one last time to try and get it right, and the result was Deadpool – which, as you no doubt know, was a resounding success.
But if things had turned out differently, the actor may have found himself playing another superhero before all of that ever happened. That’s because Reynolds flirted with the Flash on more than one occasion. Way back in 2005, he was eager to play Barry Allen for Warner Bros., but the studio ultimately decided to go a different route and a few years later they offered him Green Lantern instead.
The second time that Reynolds almost suited up as the Fastest Man Alive was when he was sought after to voice the Wally West version of the character for a video game. We’d heard over the weekend that the Flash almost got his own open world game at one point and apparently, Reynolds was wanted to provide the voice work.
This was back in 2008, and though developer Bottlerocket Entertainment were hoping to release the game within the next year or so, they eventually pulled the plug on it. Villains such as Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, and Captain Cold were all set to appear, and you can take a look at what could have been thanks to the photo below, which is from the early stages of development.
It’s a shame that the Flash never got his own video game, as what we’ve heard about Bottlerocket’s project sounded quite promising. Apparently, “Keystone and Central City were both going to be accessible” to players with missions and sidequests to complete in each. One mission would have even revolved around Jay Garrick. Furthermore, it wouldn’t have just been a beat ’em up, as the hero would also have “more creative” ways of taking out the bad guys. Alas, it just wasn’t meant to be and for now, we’ll have to settle for the Injustice series, in which the Flash appears.
As for Reynolds, he definitely had a rough couple of years it seems, but thankfully, he finally got his redemption with Deadpool, bringing us not only one of the best comic book movies of 2016, but one of the best films of the year, period. And with a sequel already firing up production, it seems that the actor’s got a bright future ahead of him as far as superheroes go.
