Nathan Fillion's New Sci-Fi Series Regains Ground On Streaming In Surprise Resurgence

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Nathan Fillion smiling at 2025 Disney Upfront

Published Oct 23, 2026, 2:53 PM EDT

Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

Nathan Fillion's new sci-fi series instantly became a streaming hit when it was released two months ago, and when it looked like the genre TV show was about to go out, it has found new life to regain ground on HBO Max in the United States. Fillion has made a name for himself in the last few years in crime TV shows, with the actor leading the long-running The Rookie, with season 9 on the way. Before that, he appeared in another hit show of the same genre, Castle. That said, Fillion is also a major name when it comes to sci-fi.

Early in his career, Fillion gave life to Captain Mal Reynolds in Firefly, with the short-lived series becoming a sci-fi cult classic over the years. Fillion also reprised the role for a sequel movie, Serenity, and is currently working on an animated Firefly sequel series to bring back most of the show's original cast. Fillion has also voiced the Green Lantern Hal Jordan, one of DC's many space cops from the Green Lantern Corps, in multiple animated superhero movies. In 2026, HBO's Lanterns brought back Fillion as Guy Gardner, who he played in 2025's Superman. Now, the show has climbed the streamer's chart.

Lanterns Is Surprisingly Flying Back Up HBO Max's United States Chart

At the time of writing, Lanterns stands as the 6th most popular TV show on HBO Max in the United States. This marks a surprising resurgence for the sci-fi series, with Lanterns moving up three spots. The live-action Green Lantern series saw Fillion's Guy Gardner appear in a couple of episodes, with the finale changing his character's role in James Gunn's DC Universe. That said, Lanterns' main stars were Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre's John Stewart. Lanterns debuted on HBO and HBO Max on August 16. The show aired all of season 1's eight episodes weekly, concluding on October 4.

After being HBO Max's most-watched TV show throughout its run, it was only natural that Lanterns would come to fall on the streaming service's charts after the release of the season 1 finale. However, the fact that the new sci-fi series featuring Fillion is still managing to fight back and climb positions on HBO Max's US chart weeks after its latest episode was released is a massive feat. That said, there is a key fact that could be behind Lanterns' streaming resurgence, and it connects to the wider DCU, as there has been a new release to drive interest.

James Gunn's DC Universe Has Already Followed-Up Lanterns With A New Release

While Lanterns is the DCU's latest TV show, the franchise just saw the release of its third movie in theaters. Clayface arrived on the big screen this Friday, October 23. The R-rated movie focuses on the Batman villain, exploring the tragic backstory of Matt Hagen, doing so with its fair share of body horror moments as Clayface starts to better understand how he can shift his body into different shapes and even become other people. Clayface's release likely drove more fans to the DCU's latest TV show, being the bump Lanterns needed to rise on HBO Max's charts.