HBO's Lanterns Is Great, But DC's 2-Part Green Lantern Corps Series Is A Masterpiece

Published Aug 21, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

When James Gunn first announced Lanterns, it seemed pretty dubious. In the comics, the Green Lantern Corps are a spacefaring band of intergalactic cops chasing alien supervillains across the galaxy, so it seemed like a weird approach to adapt those comics into a gritty, grounded, Earth-bound HBO murder mystery in the vein of True Detective or Mare of Easttown.

But now that Lanterns has premiered, those concerns have been squashed. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are both perfectly cast as Hal Jordan and John Stewart, and they have just the right buddy-cop chemistry to carry the series. A mass shooting perpetrated by an extraterrestrial terrorist was a great hook, and it promised that the show wouldn’t be shying away from the cosmic side of the story. The trailers have already promised that Hal will consult with an aging, imprisoned Sinestro, like a spacebound Silence of the Lambs.

The series marries these two seemingly incompatible tones — a grounded crime thriller about U.S. gun violence and a superhero show about costumed vigilantes with magical rings — surprisingly well. The mystery of what happened to Hal will keep audiences coming back week after week, and if the show can stick the landing in time for the season 1 finale, then Gunn’s DCU will finally be back on track.

But, as much as I love Lanterns, there was an even better (and even more shamelessly colorful and comic-booky) Green Lantern show. The first ever Green Lantern TV series is still the best of the relatively small bunch.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series Is The Best Green Lantern Adaptation By Far

As great as Lanterns is (and it’s only just getting started), Green Lantern: The Animated Series is still the best Green Lantern adaptation by far, and it explores the full Green Lantern mythos. It was the first Green Lantern TV show, and the first CG-animated series by DC and Warner Bros. (its slick visual style feels reminiscent of The Incredibles).

After a special preview screening of the first episode at Comic-Con in 2011, Green Lantern: The Animated Series aired on Cartoon Network, as part of their “DC Nation” programming block, and ultimately ran for 26 episodes between 2012 and 2013. It has a 100% critics’ score and a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — it doesn’t get much fresher than that. Similar to Lanterns, Green Lantern: The Animated Series was another buddy-cop show, where Hal is partnered up with Kilowog and pitted against the dark forces of the Red Lanterns, led by the nefarious Atrocitus. It even included the Manhunters, who seem to be the main villains of Lanterns.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series was cancelled after one season, but the tragic thing is that the show’s fate had nothing to do with the show itself. The animated series was a casualty of Ryan Reynolds’ live-action Green Lantern bomb. The unanimously negative reception and dismal box office performance of that film tarnished the Green Lantern brand. Toy sales tanked, and Green Lantern: The Animated Series was cancelled.

We're Getting A New Green Lantern Animated Series Soon

Green Lantern: The Animated Series may have been cancelled, but we’re getting another Green Lantern animated series soon enough. A spinoff from My Adventures with Superman is in development at Adult Swim, focused on Jessica Cruz — a member of the Green Lantern Corps — who was first introduced in season 3, episode 2, “Mobile Suit Toyman.”

Jessica was voiced by Moana herself, Auliʻi Cravalho, who will reprise the role in the spinoff. In that episode, we saw a young Jessica looking up to Supergirl, hoping to one day be as brave as she is, and in My Adventures with Green Lantern, we’ll see that bravery in action — in brightest day, in blackest night.