HBO’s Lanterns is earning rave reviews. The new series, a dark take on the mythos of DC Comics’ Green Lantern Corps, has also been attracting scores of viewers in brightest day and darkest night, racing up the streaming charts. In fact, it’s been so successful that it’s having an effect on one of the least-beloved movies in DC’s back catalog.
Lanterns, the creation of Tom King, Damon Lindelof, and Chris Mundy, stars Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, a veteran member of the Green Lantern Corps. The Corps are a spacefaring organization of peace officers armed with will-powered rings that can manifest their thoughts into reality. He’s training a new member of the Corps, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), while investigating a mysterious death with alien involvement in the American heartland. The show takes place over several time periods; in the present-day time period, a third Green Lantern, the obnoxious Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion, who debuted as the character in last summer’s Superman), has turned up as well.
2011’s Green Lantern, the first-ever big-screen outing for the ring-slinger, is now soaring up the streaming charts, taking the #7 spot on HBO Max’s top ten, thanks to Lanterns-hungry viewers. Ryan Reynolds starred as Hal Jordan in that film, which depicted his origin and his battles against the alien entity Parallax (voiced by Clancy Brown) and the mutated super-genius Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard). Several elements found in Lanterns also turned up in the film, including the presence of Jordan’s mentor-turned-foe Sinestro (played in Green Lantern by Mark Strong, and in Lanterns by Ulrich Thomsen).
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
Why Did ‘Green Lantern’ Fail?
Green Lantern was intended to launch a DC cinematic universe, much as Iron Man had done with the MCU three years earlier. However, the film was a flop with critics and audiences, garnering a wretched 25% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and earning $237 million USD against a $200 million budget. Critics cited the garish special effects, the awkward exposition of comics lore, and an uninspiring pair of villains in their harsh critiques. The film’s disappointing reception also excluded Green Lantern characters from appearing in any of the subsequent DC cinematic outings; only in Superman, almost fifteen years later, did the Corps return to live-action. Reynolds himself has frequently joked about the film’s failure, including in several of his big-screen appearances as Deadpool.
Green Lantern is now streaming on HBO Max. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
Release Date
June 17, 2011
Runtime
114 minutes
Director
Martin Campbell
Writers
Marc Guggenheim, Michael Goldenberg, Michael Green, Greg Berlanti
