The film Green Lantern is based on a series of comic books published by DC Comics. The 2011 superhero movie adapts DC’s Green Lantern mythology, especially the character Hal Jordan and the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps.
In the film, test pilot Hal Jordan is chosen by a power ring after the alien Green Lantern Abin Sur is mortally wounded. The ring gives Jordan access to constructs powered by willpower and makes him a member of a space-faring police force overseen by the Guardians of the Universe. His main opponent is Parallax, a being connected to fear and the yellow power associated with it.
Green Lantern was directed by Martin Campbell and starred Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong, and Peter Sarsgaard. Warner Bros. and DC originally hoped it would launch a larger shared franchise, but the film’s critical reception and box-office performance ended plans for its immediate sequels. DC Comics itself began publishing Green Lantern stories in 1940, with multiple characters taking the mantle over the decades.