In 2011, the Green Lantern movie was one of Warner's most talked-about flops. Fifteen years later, HBO's Lanterns delivered the biggest debut for a DC Studios series on HBO Max, and Funko is giving it three Pops: Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Sinestro. The show lived up to its promise. The wave plays it very safe.
From misfire to ratings record
Martin Campbell's Green Lantern, with Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, long served as a cautionary tale. Reynolds himself still mocks it in Deadpool. So DC Studios took the exact opposite route for its return: no cosmic epic, but a ground-level police investigation in a small Nebraska town, led by two Green Lanterns on Earth.
Created by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King, season 1 ran eight episodes, from August 16 to October 4, 2026. The premiere drew 9.3 million viewers worldwide in three days, and the finale, "Dirt and Stars," 10.5 million, a season high. Season 2 hasn't been ordered yet, but a writers' room is taking shape around Chris Mundy.
Three Pops, three generations of Lanterns
- John Stewart – Pop #650: Aaron Pierre as the recruit. He's the one Funko's official description puts at the center, a new recruit tested by a murder investigation. Created in 1971 by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams, he was a whole generation's Green Lantern thanks to the 2001 Justice League animated series. His only previous Pop, in 2017, was a retailer exclusive.
- Hal Jordan – Pop #649: Kyle Chandler as the veteran, the opposite of 2011's cocky test pilot. A glow-in-the-dark version of the same number exists as a retailer exclusive.
- Sinestro – Pop #651: Ulrich Thomsen, the Danish actor from Banshee. In the comics, Sinestro was Hal's mentor before founding the Sinestro Corps and its yellow rings.
Eleven years later, the same duo gets a new face
The catalog has a memory. Hal Jordan and Sinestro got their first Pops in 2015, as #11 and #12, already side by side. Eleven years later they're back under consecutive numbers again, this time with their actors' faces. The mentor and the student turned enemies remain inseparable in the catalog.
Our take: John Stewart, and a missing duo
I'm taking John Stewart. Hal Jordan and Sinestro already have several versions, and their 2015 Pops remain the most fitting, because they follow the comics design. John Stewart had only had a retailer-exclusive Pop, and Aaron Pierre is the show's breakout. If only one of these three figures earns a place in the catalog's history, it's his.
The gap is in the format. Lanterns is a two-hander: a veteran, a recruit, an investigation. Funko sells the two characters separately, when the show called for a Pop! Moment or a Pop! & Buddy bringing Hal and John together. And the glow-in-the-dark version reserved for Hal, the wave's only variant, denies the recruit the light of his own ring.
All three figures came out between September and October 2026, and the glow-in-the-dark Hal Jordan is announced for November.
