We’ve only seen images and short clips of footage of DC Studios‘ Lanterns until now, but we finally have a proper trailer at last. The new HBO Max/DCU series, based on the iconic Green Lantern franchise, focuses on pilot Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and rookie Lantern John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as they become entangled in a small town mystery. It seems Hal is training Stewart as his replacement in the Green Lantern Corps, and the two have a contentious relationship, in a “buddy cop movie” kind of way. You can watch the full trailer for HBO Max’s Lanterns series down below:
So what are our takeaways? Well, if this show wasn’t called Lanterns, we’d be hard-pressed to know it had much connection with the DC Comics heroes. Aside from one brief scene of Hal taking flight, and an even briefer clip of his power ring glowing, we see no evidence of any Green Lantern powers. We also don’t see either Lantern in costume. There’s a brief shot of a Lantern uniform in a closet, giving us an idea of what it looks like. It seems they ditched the classic black-and-green color scheme for a muddy green and a darker green. Which is an odd choice. Also, the fact that there’s a uniform in a closet means their rings don’t create the costumes. This is another big departure from the comics.
We’re not sure why they’re shying away so hard from showing any actual Green Lantern action. We’ve already seen a Green Lantern doing Green Lantern things in James Gunn’s Superman, which featured Guy Gardner. Is this still stigma from the 2011 Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie flop? We’re not sure, but it feels like it’s time to move past that. A Green Lantern meets True Detective take on the mythology could be very cool. And many of the classic Green Lantern stories don’t take place in space. But they still feature a guy making things out of green energy with a “magic” ring. One of the main producers of Lanterns is comic book writer Tom King. Let’s hope that he doesn’t run away from the Green Lantern basics too much here.
Lanterns will premiere on HBO Max later this year.