In January 2023, newly-minted DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran announced the launch of a new shared continuity called the DC Universe to succeed the DC Extended Universe. The DCU’s Chapter One slate, titled “Gods and Monsters,” is comprised of a variety of upcoming DC movies and upcoming DC TV shows, with the latter category including Lanterns. Some new details have been released over the last several months shedding more light on what we can expect from this Green Lantern streaming show, and the latest update on that front brings not just a big change behind the scenes, but also seemingly answers a major fan question.
First up, HBO has given Lanterns an eight-episode, straight-to-series order. Yes, you read that correctly, HBO. Rather than being released straight to people with a Max subscription as was originally the plan, the show will instead air on the premium cable network first, then be released on the streaming platform.
Additionally, take a look at the way lead protagonists Hal Jordan and John Stewart are described in the official Lanterns synopsis:
The series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
If you speculated that Hal Jordan would be the mentor and John Stewart the rookie in Lanterns, they you were right on the money! Granted, that was their dynamic when John was introduced to the comics in Green Lantern #87 more than five decades ago, and that’s how they were going to be presented in the now-scrapped Green Lantern Corps movie for the DCEU. Still, it’s nice to have this clarification to accompany this latest round of Lanterns news.
Although Hal and John won’t be the first Green Lanterns to be introduced to the DCU, with that honor falling to Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner as a member of the Superman cast, obviously Lanterns will be a must-watch if you’re wanting to do a deep dive into the mythology surrounding the Emerald Knight who can create contracts with their wings from sheer willpower. This will also be the first live-action Green Lantern-focused project since the 2011 movie starring Ryan Reynolds, who hasn’t hesitated to poke fun at the feature after it critically and commercially underperformed. There was also a Green Lantern TV series in development that would have starred characters like Alan Scott and Guy Gardner, but it was scrapped in late 2022.
Behind the scenes, Ozark’s Chris Mundy is serving as Lanterns’ showrunner and executive producer, and he’s writing the series with Watchmen’s Damon Lindelof and Eisner Award-winning DC Comics writer Tom King, both of whom are also executive producing. Now that this straight-to-series order has been announced and Lanterns has been set as HBO’s newest event TV offering, hopefully it won’t be too long until we learn who’s starring and when production will begin.
