[This story contains spoilers for Lanterns episode six, “Bad Optics.”]

When Lanterns first announced itself as an earthy riff on True Detective, Training Day and Banshee, some fans questioned whether Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern from Superman (2025) would fit such a markedly different tone.

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James Gunn, the latter film’s director and co-CEO of DC Studios, has long said that the DCU will not have a house style. Like the comics, each character can reflect the distinct tone of one particular story while adapting to the look and feel of a completely different tale elsewhere in the same universe. Even so, the gap between Fillion’s ring-powered man “of the cloth,” Guy Gardner, complete with his pumpkin-pie haircut, and the more cavalier Hal Jordan and austere John Stewart — Jordan’s former Green Lantern trainee — is a considerable one.

Fillion never worried that Gardner would be a square peg in a round hole, but he did wonder how showrunner Chris Mundy, alongside co-creators Damon Lindelof and Tom King, would walk the tonal tightrope.

“I didn’t have any concerns. Conceptually, I got it. I just wondered how they would actually flesh that out,” Fillion tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I likened it to this: If you’re living in the DC universe and you spend a weekend in Metropolis and then spend the following weekend in Gotham, you’d be the same person — but you’d have two very different weekends.”

In the fifth episode, which brought the 2016 timeline to a head, Hal (Kyle Chandler), desperate to stave off John’s (Aaron Pierre) succession, engineered a battle between Zoe the Manhunter (Poorna Jagannathan) and her extraterrestrial enemies, knowingly putting John and Rushville’s populace in harm’s way. Sickened by Hal’s unhealthy desire to maintain power, John later seized Hal’s ring and then abandoned the very object he spent his entire life pursuing.

After the Lanterns’ governing body, the Guardians of the Universe, chose Gardner as John’s successor, they likely joined forces with Gardner’s corporate benefactor, Maxwell Lord, to rehabilitate the Green Lantern brand following the nightmare in Rushville.

As a result, the Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson-written sixth episode, “Bad Optics,” brilliantly visualizes (via director Stephen Williams) how Gardner’s more comic book-esque appearance fits into the grounded atmosphere of Lanterns. During John’s 2026 return to Rushville to investigate Hal’s death, he strolls through the town supermarket and passes a promotional standee of Fillion’s former “athletic director” turned Green Lantern, hawking an energy drink. Guy became a superhero and corporate mascot at the very same time — a combination Hal and John never would have accepted as Lanterns.

“Marketing goes hand in hand with that position. [Guy] probably had damage-control people telling him, ‘Here’s what we need to do,’” Fillion says. “ Also, he has his own goals. He wants to open a bar of his very own. For that, you need money, and for that, you need corporate sponsorship. He has his finger on the pulse of both what it is to be a superhero and what it is to be a businessman. He’s one of those guys.”

Despite the townsfolk’s objections, he even installed the Green Lantern equivalent of the Bat-Signal at the center of Rushville, hoping to make amends for the death and destruction caused by the preceding intergalactic peacekeeper. John then uses that very beacon to arrange a meeting with Guy. He needs Hal’s decommissioned ring to help solve his murder, so he asks Guy to retrieve it from the Guardians under the guise of a military-style funeral for Hal. When Guy resists, John guilts him into cooperating by reminding him that he wouldn’t be Earth’s current Green Lantern had John not turned down the opportunity a decade earlier.

Fillion will reprise his role in Gunn’s 2027 Superman follow-up, Man of Tomorrow, and he offers a compelling tease of what moviegoers can expect. (He will also voice Gardner in King’s animated series Mister Miracle.)

“In the first movie, and rightly so, we learn a lot about who Superman is. In [Man of Tomorrow], I think we’ll learn more about who Lex Luthor is, and I think it’s equally important,” Fillion adds.

Below, during a conversation with THR, Fillion also discusses his longstanding relationship with Gunn that now spans a dozen projects.

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Your 2005 audition for Slither continues to pay dividends. You’ve now worked on 12 projects that involve James Gunn in some capacity.

I’ve never counted, so thank you for that.

In that time, you’ve watched James go from Hollywood punk rocker to Hollywood power broker. Is he still the same guy for the most part?

Yes, he’s absolutely the same guy. The only thing that has changed is the scope of his projects and the sheer number of people on his teams. And boy, the caliber of the work, that has evolved. But who James is, how much he loves his job and loves to laugh — and how he’s always thinking on different levels of storytelling — that is the same.

I’ve been acting for a long time now. I really enjoy it. I think I’m a pretty good actor, and I feel like I’m good at a lot of it. But it’s apparent to me how good James is at his job and that I could not do that job. He’s really that good at it. So to work with someone who is really good at their job on that level, it’s really a fortunate position to be in.

Lanterns and Superman have two very different tones. When you first heard about Lanterns being a riff on True Detective, Training Day and Banshee, did you have any concerns about Guy Gardner’s inclusion being a square-peg situation?

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I didn’t have any concerns; I just wondered what that would mean. Conceptually, I got it. I just wondered how they would actually flesh that out, but I left that to smarter people than me. By the time I got there, their world had, in fact, been fleshed out, and I was simply visiting. For me, the important thing was consistency. I likened it to this: If you’re living in the DC universe and you spend a weekend in Metropolis and then spend the following weekend in Gotham, you’d be the same person — but you’d have two very different weekends.

I have to admit, I was initially skeptical that your Green Lantern would be compatible with the tone of Lanterns, but I was instantly sold upon seeing that supermarket standee of Guy Gardner selling ElectroPunch. The reason being, Hal (Kyle Chandler) and John (Aaron Pierre) aren’t exactly ideal public-facing Green Lanterns. Hal is too unpredictable, while John takes the role too seriously to be a spokesman. But Guy seems perfectly comfortable being a corporate mascot and branded commodity who’s concerned with optics.

Guy Gardner is someone who really embraces the idea that he is special. He likes the idea that he’s been chosen, so marketing goes hand in hand with that position. Also, he has his own goals. He wants to open a bar of his very own. For that, you need money, and for that, you need corporate sponsorship. He has his finger on the pulse of both what it is to be a superhero and what it is to be a businessman. He’s one of those guys.

He’s willing to play the game, unlike the other two.

Yeah, he finds it to be part of the job.

Your appearance in episode six also reminded me of how much lighting and color grading can affect tone.

Yeah, stories are told on so many levels. When they’re doing it right, you don’t notice it; you just feel it. And they’ve done a very good job because you do feel it.

Guy installed his version of the Bat-Signal in Rushville as a way to make amends after the mess Hal and John made. Do you think he did that on his own volition? Or did the Guardians and Maxwell Lord insist on it?

I think he certainly wanted to, but he also has access to PR teams through LordTech. He probably had damage-control people telling him, “Here’s what we need to do.” So that beacon is certainly the product of a team of people working toward bettering their public persona.

When John and Guy talk in jail, it seems like they’ve met before, but then Guy says, “The first time I met Hal Jordan, he was in jail too.” So is this actually their first face-to- face?

I don’t think this is their first face-to-face. They know who each other are. They have experience with each other. However, they don’t consider themselves colleagues. Guy is the kind of person you want to keep distance from in general, but the ring and the position of Green Lantern makes the dynamic of their relationship not so friendly.

The wonderment of being chosen to be a Green Lantern is that it could be anybody. You grow up as a kid thinking, I can’t be Superman because I’m not Kryptonian, but I could very easily be a Green Lantern. So there’s something really wonderful and magical about that. The flip side is, if you aren’t chosen, what does that do to somebody? There’s a reality there. What happens to the psyche of a person who is unchosen, passed up and passed over?

Guy was chosen, but John also calls it like it is when he says, “Everything you have is because I didn’t take it.”

John needs [Hal’s decommissioned ring] from Guy Gardner, and that’s the thread he pulls on to get it. He had a part to play in Guy being in the position he’s in now, so Guy doing a favor for John is him saying, “Fine, then. Now we’re even. I don’t owe you anything after this.”

What can you offer about your experience on Man of Tomorrow?

Boy, it felt great. It felt great going back. The first experience was fantastic, so it felt really cool picking up where we left off. It’s not so much that we literally picked up where we left off. There’s been history and things happening since then. But it was a lot of fun to be able to not only revisit these characters, but also see the actors I made friends with on the first project.

Is it tonally similar to Superman?

In the first movie, and rightly so, we learn a lot about who Superman is. In this movie, I think we’ll learn more about who Lex Luthor is, and I think it’s equally important.

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Lanterns is currently streaming new episodes every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max until Oct. 4. Check out the rest of THR’s coverage including Kelly Macdonald and Jason Ritter; Poorna Jagannathan and Garret Dillahunt; Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler; EPs Damon Lindelof and Tom King; showrunner Chris Mundy and writer Vanessa Baden Kelly.

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