HBO’s Lanterns is receiving enthusiastic reviews. The new series, a dark interpretation of the mythos surrounding DC Comics’ Green Lantern Corps, has also been drawing a large audience, climbing the streaming charts. In fact, its success is impacting one of the less favored films in DC’s history.

Lanterns, created by Tom King, Damon Lindelof, and Chris Mundy, features Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, a seasoned member of the Green Lantern Corps. The Corps is a spacefaring organization of peace officers equipped with will-powered rings that can turn their thoughts into reality. He is mentoring a new member of the Corps, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), while investigating a mysterious death involving aliens in the American heartland. The show spans multiple time periods; in the present-day timeline, a third Green Lantern, the brash Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion, who first appeared as the character in last summer’s Superman), has also emerged.

The 2011 film Green Lantern, which marked the first major cinematic appearance of the ring-slinger, is now climbing the streaming charts, securing the #7 position on HBO Max’s top ten, thanks to viewers eager for Lanterns. Ryan Reynolds played Hal Jordan in that film, which depicted his origin story 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 appeared in the film, including the character of Jordan’s mentor-turned-adversary Sinestro (portrayed in Green Lantern by Mark Strong, and in Lanterns by Ulrich Thomsen).

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