It sounds bizarre now, but once upon a time, Jack Black almost wore the Green Lantern ring. Yep, that Jack Black. Before the world knew Hal Jordan as the chiseled Ryan Reynolds in a glowing green suit, the role nearly went in a completely different direction—a funnier, stranger one. And no, this isn’t an internet myth. It was real. Warner Bros. considered casting the unpredictable comedy star in the lead, with a script that leaned fully into the ridiculous.
Let’s rewind. The Green Lantern movie had been stuck in development limbo since the late ’90s. In 1997, Warner Bros. reached out to Kevin Smith to write the screenplay. Smith, already burned out after the mess surrounding Superman Lives, passed. That left the project floating in space, with no clear path forward.
In 2004, enter Robert Smigel, the comedy writer best known for Saturday Night Live and TV Funhouse. He took a swing at the character, reimagining Green Lantern as a full-on comedy. Not spoof-level goofy, but leaning into absurd humor. Jack Black was attached to star. At that point, Black was on a roll—School of Rock had made him a household name. He was eccentric, energetic, and the kind of guy who could summon space energy shaped like a giant boxing glove—or, apparently, a condom. And that’s where the internet lost its mind.
Comic book purists weren’t thrilled. The idea of turning the legendary cosmic crusader into a walking punchline didn’t sit well. Even in the early days of online forums, fans made their disapproval loud and clear. Memes, rants, and blog posts flooded the internet. This wasn’t the Green Lantern they’d grown up with. It was a space comedy. With condoms. Literally.
Black later explained that the Power Ring would be used for all sorts of ridiculous creations, including green, glowing prophylactics. “I was going to be making all kinds of stuff,” he told MTV (via Far Out). “I was going to be capturing bad guys with green, giant prophylactics, some funny stuff.” If nothing else, it would’ve been memorable.
But Warner Bros. got cold feet. The backlash was too strong. The studio quietly pulled the plug. Black was bummed. “It was too weird,” he admitted. “Maybe they didn’t want to go that way.” And so, the Jack Black version of Green Lantern was shelved—filed away in the what-could-have-been folder.
Instead, Warner Bros. went traditional. In 2011, they released Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds—a big-budget, effects-heavy origin story directed by Casino Royale’s Martin Campbell. Everything looked good on paper—until it hit theaters. The film flopped. Hard. Critics panned it. Audiences shrugged. Reynolds spent the next decade roasting the movie in interviews, commercials, and even in Deadpool. That’s how much he hated it.
The studio reportedly had a trilogy in mind, but that dream got scorched in the flames of box office failure. The film was quietly buried, and DC moved on with reboots, rebrands, and universe resets.
So yeah, Jack Black never got to wear the ring. But in an alternate universe, Green Lantern might’ve been a comedy icon—loud, weird, and full of jokes. Honestly, given how the 2011 version turned out, it might not have been the worst idea.
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