Green Lantern is not only one of the most renowned superheroes in the DC lineup, but he’s also incredibly powerful. Armed with the Green Lantern ring, this hero can bring to life anything he envisions. This power allows him to soar through the skies, engage in battles, and heroically save the world alongside other legends.

The HBO series “Lanterns” aims to explore the entire lore of the Green Lanterns within the new DC Universe. However, comic book enthusiasts have long had opportunities to delve into this character’s story. Since the 1940s, Green Lantern has been a staple in the comic world, with films and TV specials showcasing live-action renditions of him since the 1970s. Due to his ability to manifest anything imagined, adapting Green Lantern for live action has proven to be one of the toughest tasks. Although there have been numerous spectacular animated portrayals in DC projects, his appearances in live-action formats remain sparse.

You may be aware of the notorious 2011 movie “Green Lantern,” which underperformed at the box office. However, it’s likely that several other interpretations of this hero have escaped your attention. We will explore the different adaptations, assessing which ones offer compelling stories and the best portrayal of this cherished character. Our analysis will draw from Rotten Tomatoes scores, fan discussions on Reddit, and personal insights. From the most faithful to the utterly disappointing, here’s a ranking of every live-action version of Green Lantern.

Even the most ardent DC fans might have missed this lost piece of television history. “Justice League of America” was a pilot episode for a superhero show that aired in December 1997 as a TV movie. The pilot didn’t generate nearly enough buzz for “Justice League of America” to move forward as a series, but it did give the few comic book readers lucky enough to catch it on TV a quick peek at what the legendary Green Lantern might look like in a live action project.

This movie’s version of the Justice League includes The Flash (Kenny Johnston), Fire (Michelle Hurd), Ice (Kimberly Oja), The Atom (John Kassir), Martian Manhunter (David Ogden Stiers), and, of course, Green Lantern (Matthew Seattle). The team was notably missing its three heaviest hitters — Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman — from the comics. The Justice League also didn’t get to fight a truly epic battle in the movie because the villain was an evil meteorologist called The Weatherman. 

Assuming you could even track down “Justice League of America” online, the movie’s Green Lantern isn’t very comic accurate and has a truly goofy-looking costume and facemask. Seattle goes down as the first person to play Guy Gardner in live action, but considering this pilot’s terrible reception, no one is going to argue he did a better job portraying the character than Nathan Fillion does in James Gunn’s “Superman.”

The very first time that DC fans got to see the Green Lantern in live action was in 1979. “Legends of the Superheroes” was a two-part family-friendly TV special that featured some of the biggest names in DC Comics. Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern was played by Howard Murphy in black and green spandex. Green Lantern doesn’t have much to do in the special, but he does get to go up against a famous villain from the comics: Sinestro, played by Charlie Callas.

Unfortunately for Green Lantern fans, “Legends of the Superheroes” isn’t an ideal showcase of the hero’s strengths. Obviously special effects in the ’70s couldn’t quite capture the Green Lantern’s powers, so the character spends most of his time on screen making jokes. In the first half of the special Green Lantern and the other heroes fend off some actual supervillains, but in the second half they take part in a celebrity-hosted roast. It’s a strange special, but IMDb users have given it a 5.4 star rating, meaning there might be something here for fans to enjoy.

If you’re a Superman fan, then you should already be well aware of “Smallville.” The series began airing in 2001, running for 10 seasons and more than 200 episodes. “Smallville” focuses on Clark Kent (Tom Welling) as he grows into his superpowers in his tiny hometown, and it’s definitely one of the best live action versions of Superman’s story that’s ever been produced.

The entire “Smallville” timeline carries us through Clark’s childhood up to the official start of his career as Superman. Along the way the show introduces plenty of big-name DC superheroes, and by a technicality, Green Lantern is among them. Played by Doug Pinton, Green Lantern briefly appears in a two-part episode during the show’s ninth season that was released as a TV movie called “Absolute Justice.” The special episode gave us a look at Alan Scott, the version of Green Lantern who first existed in the Golden Age DC comics of the 1940s, including a peek at his retro Green Lantern ring.

Sadly, we don’t get to see this version of Green Lantern use his powers, and we barely learn anything about him as a character. Instead he’s just connected to the past of the Justice Society of America, which has a particularly intriguing role to play in the plot. Because the story and the show itself are so good, this variation of Green Lantern has climbed a few places up the list.

Like “Smallville,” the live action DC series “Stargirl” gives us just a tease of Alan Scott, the Golden Age’s Green Lantern. The series follows a teenage girl named Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) whose life gets turned upside down when her mom remarries and the family moves from California to Nebraska. Just when Courtney thinks that her new life has become as boring as possible, she discovers that her stepdad used to be a superhero sidekick, and thanks to the power of a cosmic staff, she becomes the hero known as Stargirl.

Unlike “Smallville,” “Stargirl” doesn’t make you wait nine seasons before mentioning Green Lantern. The show opens with a flashback to a battle between the Justice Society of America and their aptly named arch-enemies, the Injustice Society of America. As the fight rages on, we can see the Green Lantern’s light shining but we never see him directly. The scene implies that Alan Scott doesn’t survive the battle, while the JSA itself is all but destroyed. “Stargirl” earned even stronger critical approval than “Smallville,” but the show doesn’t give the Alan Scott character any real time to shine.

The series does put a spotlight on Jade, a lesser-known DC character who was introduced in the 1980s. Jennie-Lynn Hayden (Ysa Penarejo) is the former Green Lantern’s daughter. She becomes a superhero in her own right and eventually gets to wield her father’s ring, even though she doesn’t take up the mantle herself.

If you didn’t watch “Arrow” to the very end, you might have missed the version of Green Lantern who appeared in the long-running series. Green Lantern’s role in the world is one of the biggest unresolved plotlines from the “Arrow” finale. At the same time, the fact that the Green Lantern’s story is only lightly hinted at makes this version of the character more intriguing than any other on the list.

Several other live action DC projects provided a tiny look at Green Lantern while hinting that the character has a longer history. In “Arrow” that process works in reverse. The show introduces John Diggle (David Ramsey) as an original character in the very first episode, and he’s one of the most important parts of Oliver Queen’s (Stephen Amell) team throughout the series. From time to time there are hints that John Diggle will eventually become a Green Lantern akin to John Stewart in the comics, and in the series finale we see him open a box containing an object that’s glowing green. We never see this version of Green Lantern suit up, use his powers, or even wear his ring, but because he’s such a strong character within the Arrowverse, he deserves this spot on our list.

Fans waited a long time to see “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” but the movie finally presented the definitive version of the DCEU’s super team. In the film Green Lantern isn’t actually part of the Justice League, but we do learn that the Lanterns were once key players in the fight to defend the Earth from Darkseid (Ray Porter). There’s an extended flashback sequence showing an epic battle between Darkseid’s army and Earth’s defenders, during which an alien Green Lantern uses his powers to help smash through the onslaught of enemies.

The giant battle featuring Green Lantern and other legendary heroes is one of the highlights of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” and it’s arguably the best version of a Green Lantern fight scene that has ever been created in live action. Unfortunately, some genuinely impressive CGI and a few seconds of screen time isn’t enough to push this version of Green Lantern to the top of the list. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is full of well-developed characters, but Green Lantern simply isn’t one of them. His cameo is still exciting for fans of the character, but anyone who wants to see a lot of Green Lantern action can skip the rest of the movie.

You probably don’t need us to tell you that 2011’s “Green Lantern” isn’t a great movie. The movie has a whopping 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and bombed at the box office. It was so bad that Ryan Reynolds, who starred in the title role, could barely stand watching it at the premiere. “It was crazy,” he told The Independent of the experience. “It was an odd feeling. It was not a feeling I wanted to repeat.” Ever since its debut, “Green Lantern” has been the butt of jokes and a frequent flier on lists of the worst comic book movies ever made.

Despite that, “Green Lantern” still features one of the best live action versions of the character that fans have seen. Reynold’s Hal Jordan is a cocky and entertaining hero, and though his characterization isn’t really comic accurate, the movie at least gives him a few chances to make creative use of his powers. The story also introduces the Green Lantern Corps and helps build out the mythology in a way that other live action projects haven’t even attempted. Mostly by virtue of being the only real game in town, this was the best live action version of Green Lantern for well over a decade.

James Gunn’s “Superman” is the real starting point of the newly rebooted DC Universe on film, and because of that it introduces a slew of characters from the wider DC universe like Hawkgirl (Isabella Merced), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). In our review of “Superman,” we said that the worldbuilding magic present in the cast of characters is one of the movie’s biggest strengths. Every cast member in the story gets a moment to shine, and that’s especially true of Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern.

In the movie Fillion plays Guy Gardner, a version of the Green Lantern that comic readers will instantly recognize but who might not be as familiar to general moviegoers. Fillion gets Guy’s characterization across in mere minutes. He’s a little arrogant and definitely full of himself, but ultimately he’s driven to do good and live up to the Green Lantern oath. It’s easy to laugh at Guy’s constant pleas to keep “The Justice Gang” as the name of his super team, but we’re repeatedly reminded that Guy wants to look out for his other superhero friends and the general public more than he wants name recognition and glory. 

Fillion’s portrayal in this movie alone brings him to the top of our live action Green Lantern rankings, and the fact that we might actually get to see this version of the character again makes him even easier to care about.

Despite being a big name in the comics, there haven’t been many live action takes on Green Lantern. The character has appeared in more than half a dozen iterations, but whether he’s been in the movies or on TV, Green Lantern has usually had little more than a glorified cameo. He shows up in the background of larger stories, and he’s only gotten a chance to step up in a rare few instances.

That is essentially the opposite of the situation for Green Lantern in animation. There is no shortage of great takes on the character, and some of them even come with movie stars attached. Now that the first reactions to “Superman” are in, people are beginning to recognize that Nathan Fillion makes a perfect Guy Gardner. Luckily, fans can also dig into his portrayal of Hal Jordan in a number of DC animated projects.

Out of all the animated Green Lanterns, there’s one that is often considered the best. Bruce Timm’s “Justice League” show is almost as beloved as “Batman: The Animated Series.” Phil LaMarr plays John Stewart, the Green Lantern of that continuity, and he brings an incredible presence to every episode. If you need more Green Lantern, any of the animated shows and movies will make a great starting point. But if you want the best Green Lantern of them all, then definitely check out LaMarr’s work in “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited.”