Rather than Lanterns, the DCU’s Green Lantern-focused series, being a sprawling cosmic adventure, we’ve been hearing a lot about how it will be more grounded. The show’s premise of Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart investigating a murder in Nebraska is channeling the same kind of feel that True Detective does. But it’s not the only source of inspiration for this upcoming DC TV show, with director James Hawes mentioning Slow Horses and Black Mirror while opening up about Lanterns’ vibe.
Hawes has worked on both those shows, and his other TV credits include Doctor Who, Penny Dreadful and Snowpiercer. Now he’s been tapped to director the first two episodes of Lanterns, which began filming in February. In an interview with Collider, the director started off discussing this DCU entry by focusing on its humor, saying:
There is a very particular humor that they brought to this. It's very rooted in a way that I like to think we achieve with Slow Horses, that I achieve with things like my Black Mirror's, and yet there is a rich vein of humor running through it. So, again, it was about that tone. I'm such a huge fan of Damon [Lindelof] and Chris [Mundy] and the writing that they've done in the past.
Chris Mundy and Damon Lindelof worked with DC Comics writer Tom King to put Lanterns together, with Mundy serving as the showrunner. Even though Lanterns isn’t shaping up to be the kind of show that many Green Lantern fans (myself included) thought it would be, I am pleased to hear that this won’t be a completely serious affair. The humor in Slow Horses and James Hawes’ Black Mirror episodes might not be laugh-out-loud funny, but there are at least moment of amusement sprinkled throughout the darker beats, and Lanterns will deliver that as well.
At its core though, the Green Lantern property isn’t just rooted in the superhero genre, but also science fiction. After all, beings from all over the galaxy are recruited into the Green Lantern Corps and given rings that allow users to fly and create physical constructs using their imagination and willpower. Hawes went on to say that the science fiction element will still be there, it’ll just be handled in a way that’s more rooted in realism. As he explained:
It doesn't lack its sci-fi magic, but it's done in a world where you accept that these things just are. They don't need that extra sprinkle of sci-fi fairy dust. It works within a physical world that we've come to know.
In case you need extra assurance that Lanterns won’t shy away from the fantastical, don’t forget that Ulrich Thomsen is playing Sinestro, the Guardians of the Universe will appear, and we may even see Sinestro leading his group of Yellow Lanterns, a.k.a. the Sinestro Corps. Fans are also theorizing that Garret Dillahunt’s character, William Macon, could be the show’s version of Black Hand. So while the Lanterns vibe won’t be something along the lines of what we’ve gotten from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy or the Star Wars universe, at least it’s not shying away from its sci-fi origins as much as possible.
Lanterns debuts on HBO sometime in early 2026, and episodes will be available to stream afterwards with a Max subscription. Coming much sooner to the DCU is the James Gunn-written and directed Superman, which opens in theaters on July 11 and features Nathan Fillion playing Guy Gardner, a fellow Green Lantern.
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