Nathan Fillion is willing to do what no Green Lantern has done before on screen: drop “F-bombs.” The Firefly and Castle actor plays the hot-headed, bowl cut-haired Guy Gardner in James Gunn’s PG-13 Superman movie, where the Green Lantern flippantly uses his will-powered ring to flip off his enemies (in the form of an emerald construct of a giant middle finger). It’s that kind of attitude that Fillion is bringing to HBO’s Lanterns series —which will be rated TV-MA — after first popping up in Gunn’s foul-mouthed HBO Max series Peacemaker season 2.
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Like his comic counterpart, who is arrogant, self-absorbed, brash, and unruly, but with a respect for his fellow Lanterns, Fillion’s Guy Gardner will be a smug trash talker when we see him opposite Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart.
“Aaron, he’s got a voice like butter. And he’s statuesque, like he’s carved out of marble,” Fillion told Entertainment Weekly. “He’s very, very specific about his character and what his character’s going through. His character’s clearly going through something. And then along comes this gregarious, smug son of a bitch in Guy Gardner. And in that show…boy, Guy Gardner. I’ve dropped more f-bombs in that project than I have in, I think, my entire career put together.”
Fillion added that Guy’s smug attitude comes across in his first scene with Stewart, “but by the end of it, you can tell there is a shift.”
“Guy Gardner is no longer comfortable. He is no longer feeling smug,” Fillion continued. “Then you can see where John’s strength really lies. That is a strong individual.” Although he doesn’t “really have any scenes directly” with Kyle Chandler’s veteran space cop Hal Jordan in Lanterns, Fillion said of Chandler, “But meeting Kyle, he’s everything you’d hope he would be. Very fun, very nice man, very lighthearted, and fun to be around.”
Fillion has also played Hal Jordan, voicing the first-ever human Green Lantern in multiple animated films since 2011’s Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. While he’s voiced Jordan in 2012’s Justice League: Doom, 2015’s Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, 2018’s Death of Superman, and 2019’s Reign of Supermen, Fillion notes, “There’s been a bunch of people now who have played Hal Jordan, but I’m the first live-action Guy Gardner. If there’s to be another, I’ll still be the first. So I think I’m in a great spot.”
Gunn, who serves as an executive producer on the series from showrunner Chris Mundy (Ozark) and executive producers and co-writers Tom King (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) and Damon Lindelof (Lost), has described the HBO Original drama series to be in the vein of HBO’s True Detective. Per the logline, Lanterns “follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”
“Our driving force has been to deliver a layered drama — rooted in nuanced storytelling and rich world building — that balances tension and mystery with honest, authentic emotion,” Mundy said when the series started production in February. “The goal is to create something that feels timeless and grounded without sacrificing the magic of the source material.”
Lanterns, which stars Pierre, Chandler, and Fillion alongside Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, and Ulrich Thomsen, is expected to premiere in 2026 on HBO. DC Studios’ Superman is in theaters Friday.
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