4) Green Lantern
Ryan Reynolds is hoping for a little more luck with his next effort at transforming a comic book character into an appealing cinematic presence. Having played Marvel anti-hero Deadpool as a dull mute in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the actor later found himself flailing around in the spectacularly over-stylized film adaptation of DC’s Green Lantern, unable to make himself heard over the special-effects team deliriously pounding away on top of him. But thankfully, the future looks bright for both the Hollywood star and the Green Lantern character. Reynolds is all set to take another stab at Deadpool in the sort of part he originally wanted, and Hal Jordan’s lime-shiny superhero is getting another feature film.
The Green Lantern is no stranger to alternative forms of media, having appeared in a variety of animated Justice League movies. But his live-action Hollywood debut wasn’t quite what the fans wanted, and when Warner Bros. announced plans for a Green Lantern reboot set for 2020, the disappointment of Martin Campbell’s nuclear-shaded sound-and-light show slowly began to ebb away.
With the release date still several years away, the rumor mill continues to unapologetically crank away – with Chris Pine currently the odds-on favorite to take the lead role. The various forms that Green Lantern has adopted over the years means that there’s plenty of material to choose from and we can only hope that the next team to cast Hal Jordan/Kyle Rayner up on screen will take a good long look at what the fans want, rather than beam up another piercing special-effects show to compensate for lack of good material.