You might be surprised to learn that DC Studios took inspiration from one of the worst superhero movies ever made when developing one detail for the Superman reboot, the first feature film of the DC Universe. DC’s live-action future is looking bright under James Gunn and Peter Safran’s guidance, but past adaptations of the stories and characters from DC Comics haven’t always fared so well. Even so, when finding inspiration for characters in the Superman reboot from July 2025, DC Studios turned to one of DC’s biggest theatrical flops.
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In the recently-released book, Superman: The Art and Making of the Film, it was revealed that DC Studios used “a similar design from the Ryan Reynolds film” when finding a new look for the Green Lantern Ring. Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern movie from 2011 starred Reynolds as Hal Jordan, but was a monumental flop, apparently losing Warner Bros. over $75 million, and is regarded one of the worst superhero movies ever. Even so, Superman’s prop master had worked on Green Lantern, so “he came in with a whole slew of ring ideas, and we all kind of gravitated to this one right away and thought, ‘Oh, this is beautiful,’ and it felt simple and that there was a history to it, and he was like, ‘Actually, this is from that movie!’”
The Future is Looking Bright for the Green Lanterns in the DCU’s Future
After Green Lantern was a complete disaster, and failed to kick-start a new superhero franchise, the projects of the DC Extended Universe ignored and neglected the Green Lantern Corps entirely. The rebooted DCU has already changed the status quo by introducing Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner’s Green Lantern early on. His appearance in Superman was brilliant, and he showed off some of the Green Lantern Corps’ formidable powers, including creating hard-light constructs, flight, superior strength and durability, and emitting energy fields and beams.
This built a strong foundation for the Green Lantern Corps in the DCU, and this continued briefly in Peacemaker season 2 with Gardner’s cameo before Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, and more bring even more Green Lantern Corps members into the DCU in the Lanterns series. It’s a long time coming for the Green Lanterns to be done justice on-screen, but it seems James Gunn and Peter Safran will finally handle this epic cosmic group properly. This makes it even more surprising that inspiration was taken from the Green Lantern movie from 2011, which left a sour taste in many mouths.
The design of the Power Ring in Green Lantern was actually one of the best parts of the movie, so, if DC Studios was going to resurrect any part of that movie, the ring was the right choice. The mythology surrounding the rings, which show the lantern emblem of the Green Lantern Corps and contains all of the wearers’ powers, will be hugely important in Lanterns and future DCU projects. Lanterns is scheduled to release on HBO Max in mid-2026 as part of the DCU’s Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters, and will give us a closer look at the ring, Hal Jordan and John Stewart’s connection, and the Green Lantern Corps as a whole, which is very exciting.
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