When it comes to live-action Green Lanterns, TV until now has had a hard time putting a ring on it.
When Lanterns lights up HBO this Sunday night, it will have been just a bit over five years since TV tackled its first, true, live-action take on DC Comics’ “space cops.”
Co-created by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King, Lanterns stars Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) and Aaron Pierre (Krypton) as, respectively, Green Lantern Corps legend Hal Jordan and trainee John Stewart, “two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery with cosmic ties as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”
A standalone Green Lantern series has been in the works, in one form or another, since late 2019, back when Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim — two co-writers of the tepidly received 2011 Ryan Reynolds movie — were shepherding it. But the Lanterns series premiering on August 16 features an all-new creative team and really started to take shape after James Gunn was made co-CEO of DC Studios, alongside Peter Safran, in November 2022.
Reynolds played Hal Jordan in the aforementioned Green Lantern movie. In the wake of that film’s meager box office ($237 million global against a $200 mil budget) and poor reviews (25% on the Tomatometer), the Green Lantern Corps disappeared from the cineplex until 2017, when a flashback in Zack Snyder‘s Justice League offered a glimpse of alien Lantern Yalan Gur. An appearance by John Stewart (played by Wayne T. Carr) in the 2021 Justice League extended cut was filmed but ultimately nixed by Warner Bros., replaced instead with a cameo by Harry Lennix‘s Martian Manhunter.
In Gunn’s 2025 Superman film, which launched the big-screen side of the new DCU, The Rookie‘s Nathan Fillion co-starred as Justice Gang member Guy Gardner, a cocksure, bowl haircut-sporting Lantern. Fillion is due to continue the role in the 2027 follow-up, Man of Tomorrow.
On the small screen, Lanterns have been similarly scarce, as detailed below.
Smallville (2010)
The CW
When it comes to TV’s live-action Green Lanterns, this one shone so faintly we can only award it half credit.
In the Season 9 Smallville episode “Absolute Justice, Part 1,” the murder of a man named Sylvester Pemberton (a.k.a. the Star-Spangled Kid) ultimately leads Clark Kent (Tom Welling) to discover the former headquarters of the Justice Society of America. There, as Clark surveys artifacts associated with the team of Golden Age heroes (e.g. The Flash’s winged helmet), we get flashes to the vigilantes’ sad fates — including the unwarranted arrest of Alan Scott, a member of the Green Lantern Corps.
Doug Pinton, in his one and only acting role, portrayed Scott in the newsreel-style footage, but he had no lines and just seven seconds of screentime.
Arrow (2020)–The Flash (2022)
It’s not easy being Green Lantern — especially when your storyline isn’t permitted to utter the L-word.
The CW’s Arrow over its eight-season run scattered Easter eggs suggesting that Oliver Queen’s (Stephen Amell) right-hand man, John Diggle (David Ramsey), was destined for some sort of green-hued fate. At one point, the show even revealed that the last name of John’s stepfather was Stewart.
That big green tease appeared to culminate in Arrow‘s series finale, when a meteor crashed outside the Diggle family home, slamming John against a moving van. After shaking off the blow, Diggle combed through the debris to discover a mysterious box which bathed his face in a bright green light.
The CW
That seemingly final Green Lantern-esque hint “was something that was worked out over a year ahead with DC Entertainment,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim explained to TVLine. “We very specifically negotiated and discussed the parameters, and I feel like to say anything beyond what we have shown you would violate our agreement with DC.”
But even with Arrow‘s fade to black, the teases kept coming. Ramsey’s Diggle ventured to Batwoman‘s Gotham and then Supergirl‘s National City, griping about mysterious “headaches” and cryptically alluding to an offer he received to be “a special kind of hero.”
It was not until The Flash‘s Season 8 episode “The Man in the Yellow Tie” that Dig beseeched scientist and speedster Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh), who was imprisoned in the A.R.G.U.S. facility on Lian Yu, to help him decipher the contents of the gleaming green cube. When Diggle came to fully understand the opportunity before him, he declined the cosmic invite that would have pulled him far, far from home, telling Thawne, “There is no power in the universe more powerful than the love I have for my family.”
Though “Lantern,” “Corps” and “ring” were never once uttered, we’re giving this one full credit for trying.
DC’S Stargirl (2021)
The Season 2 premiere of this Arrowverse-adjacent CW series closed with the titular Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) getting into a late-night clash with someone who was trying to steal the Green Lantern power battery from her home. The would-be thief was revealed to be Jennie Hayden, a.k.a. Jade (played by Ysa Penarejo), the daughter of deceased Green Lantern Alan Scott.
The CW
Jennie wound up making eight total appearances across Stargirl Seasons 2 and 3, eventually learning to use the power ring left behind by her father to levitate, generate energy-based constructs such as a car and a protective bubble, and to battle Eclipso (Nick Tarabay).
Jennie in Season 3 enlisted Courtney’s JSA to help her find her twin brother Todd (a.k.a. Obsidian). That storyline ended in such a way that planted the seed for an “Infinity Inc.” spinoff, in which Jennie/Jade and Richard Swift/The Shade (Jonathan Cake) sought out the sons and daughters, nephews and nieces of the original Justice Society. Alas, with The CW under its new Nexstar ownership and numerous scripted series being sunsetted, that offshoot was not meant to be.
Peacemaker (2025)
Six weeks after making his debut as Guy Gardner in James Gunn’s Superman film, Nathan Fillion crossed his quippy space cop over to HBO Max’s Peacemaker, for a pair of cameos in the Season 2 premiere.
First, Fillion appeared in the shamelessly retconned “Previously On,” which updated Peacemaker’s (John Cena) Season 1 finale run-in with Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) of the old DCEU’s Justice League to instead feature Guy and Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) of the new DCU’s Justice Gang.
HBO Max
Later in the premiere, Guy and Kendra joined Justice Gang underwriter Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn) to half-heartedly interview Peacemaker, a.k.a. Chris Smith, for a position on their team.
“It’s clear from their relationship that the two of them do not get along. Not a fan of each other,” Fillion told TVLine of Guy’s antagonistic dynamic with Peacemaker. “It’s just a powder keg when they get together.”
Lanterns, Series Premiere, Sunday, August 16, HBO and HBO Max