Despite a great cast and massive budget, Green Lantern failed to make much of an impact critically or commercially, but one thing almost everyone could agree on was Mark Strong's brilliant performance as iconic DC Comics villain Sinestro, with many hoping we'd get to see more of him in the villainous role.
Speaking with us during the Cruella press tour, he touched on the lack of sequels on his iMDB page and the funny irony of projects that his character dies in seeming to get sequels (i.e. Sherlock Holmes; Kick-Ass) while movies his character survives in don't (Green Lantern; John Carter), and whether that has reshaped his approach to big studio films like Shazam! and Cruella.
"Oh yeah, you can only take it one film at a time and usually when you go and do the first film, the second film hasn’t even been written yet. So, even though you’re signed up to do sequels, they won’t exist. So, I think a lot of it is based on what happens in the first one.
The irony, of course, is that everything I survive in, doesn’t seem to have sequel and everything I get killed in, does. For Sinestro, they didn’t make a Green Lantern 2, but I survived in John Carter, but unfortunately, they didn’t make a second John Carter. Kick-Ass got a sequel, but obviously, I was blown off a balcony. There’s one other where I survive and it didn’t go to a sequel, I can’t think of it off the top of my head, but there’s a sort of strange irony to that.
And, I don’t do jobs, I don’t take on things because there are sequels at all. Usually, you just take it on because you like that individual script. If there are others, so be it."
While he may not have too many sequels under his belt, Strong does seem to enjoy collaborating with some of his favorite directors on different projects, namely Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes; RocknRolla; Revolver) and Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman; Kick-Ass; Stardust), both of whom he's worked with a number of times.
He tells us that nothing is currently in the works with either of them, but that he does stay in touch with both directors throughout the year, and that if either of them had something for him, he'd be there in a heartbeat. He even teased a possible appearance as Merlin in Kingsman 3.
"Yeah, I mean Guy and I text each other occasionally and I’m always... if he finds something for me to do, I’ll be there. The same is true of Matthew, you never know, there is a Kingsman 3 and in that universe, despite the fact that I’ve been blown to pieces, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s out of the running because anything can happen in that universe.
I’ve worked with both of those guys about three times each and the reason you work with people is because you get on with them, so who knows, there may be something further down the line with either of them. I also love working with new people whenever possible as well, and the variety is what I’m interested in, so doing a big studio picture like Cruella and getting the chance to work with Craig Gillespe or something like Shazam working with David, who came from small horror movies. It’s all interesting, it’s all fascinating, and I try to mix it up as much as possible."
Cruella hits theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on May 28.