Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner, a Green Lantern character introduced in Superman (2025), appears in the grounded detective-style television series Lanterns with a distinctly different tone from previous versions of the character. Gardner is unique among Green Lanterns because he is simultaneously a corporate-sponsored superhero and aspiring businessman, a combination his predecessors would never have accepted. The sixth episode "Bad Optics" explores how Gardner's more comedic comic-book aesthetic fits within the show's darker, True Detective-inspired atmosphere, with Fillion discussing how the character operates as both superhero and marketing mascot.

In the episode's 2026 timeline, John Stewart investigates Hal Jordan's death and arranges a meeting with Gardner by using the Green Lantern beacon Gardner installed in Rushville. Stewart asks Gardner to retrieve Hal's decommissioned ring from the Guardians to help solve the murder. James Gunn, DC Studios' co-CEO and director of Superman (2025), has established that the DC Universe will not follow a single house style, allowing characters to reflect different tones across their respective stories. Fillion will reprise his role in the 2027 film Man of Tomorrow and will also voice Gardner in the animated series Mister Miracle.