Contradictory Reports Emerge About 'Green Lantern' Sequel

With the exception of the current Batman franchise, Warner Bros. and DC Comics have had a hard time bringing superheroes to the screen. They have had difficulty getting their projects off the ground in the first place. "The Flash" has been stuck in development for years, and it's taken five years for another Superman film to go into production. Even then the box office returns haven't been consistent. This was exemplified by the mediocre take of "Green Lantern." However, despite a weak showing at the box office, there are rumblings of a sequel, though the information is somewhat contradictory.

At first it seemed that a sequel to the film just wasn't going to happen. "Green Lantern" earned a total worldwide gross of just over $150 million, which doesn't cover the production costs, to say nothing of marketing costs. In comparison, Marvel's similarly cosmic-themed "Thor" took in almost three times as much. As a rule, studios don't pump money into a franchise non-starter such as this. So it was surprising when Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov told Hero Complex that a sequel was already being planned.

Robinov made a number of comments that are rather puzzling. First, he remarked that "We had a decent opening so we learned there is an audience." This almost sounds like a man in denial. The $53 million opening weekend wasn't a disaster, but for how big the marketing push on the film was everybody was expecting much more. Far more telling was how drastically the numbers dropped after that, dropping 65 percent for the following weekend. That doesn't seem to indicate much positive reaction from the audience.

Robinov also stated "we need to make it a little edgier and darker," which sent fans of the character into a minor panic. The Green Lantern comic has gone some dark places from time to time but the nature of the character isn't edgy; it's meant to be fun space adventures. Also, for all the criticism the film received, nobody seemed to be saying it should have been dark or edgy to work better.

Now there appears to be some disagreement within the studio as to how to proceed: Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told The Hollywood Reporter that the future of the franchise had not been decided. Time Warner is the parent company of both Warner Bros. and DC Comics. As to the possibility of a sequel, Bewkes said they would be "deciding that in due course." He openly admitted that the first film underperformed and seemed more realistic about the picture overall. Despite casting doubt on the future of this particular franchise, Bewkes did show confidence in the plan to try to replace the lost revenue from the Harry Potter franchise with films using DC Comics characters.

Should a sequel actually happen, it's unlikely director Martin Campbell would return. The Hero Complex story indicated that Warner Bros. had not been pleased with the director's work on "Green Lantern." They also reported that there is an outline for a sequel already in the hands of Warner Bros. from the writers of the first film. However, it seems unlikely that will be used without a massive overhaul.

The approach for the first film clearly didn't work for most audiences. There's also the fact that any sequel will likely have a lower budget, which would mean the effects-heavy space sequences would have to be scaled back and the story be more earthbound. Of course, there is still the possibility that a sequel will simply never come together at all.

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