The following contains spoilers for Lanterns Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot” which debuted August 16, 2026, on HBO and HBO Max.
Co-created by Damon Lindelof, Chris Mundy, and Tom King, Lanterns is the newest series in James Gunn’s DC Universe. Starring Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, the new HBO drama is more evocative of prestige dramas like True Detective than typical comic book adaptations. It adopts a far different tone than Gunn’s Superman or Peacemaker, which is frankly what this new shared universe needed.
After the 2011 Green Lantern film failed to land with both DC Comics fans and general audiences, there was no second attempt to bring the character to live action. In fact, director Zack Snyder reportedly wanted to introduce John Stewart for just a single scene in Justice League — a teaser for a sequel that would never come — but Warner Bros. refused him. While its appeal to broader audiences is less certain, Lanterns should help alleviate the stigma around these space cops with a drama focuses less on the former and more on the latter.
Lanterns Offers Viewers a Very Different Take on Hal Jordan
Hal Jordan first appeared as Green Lantern in 1959, but he was technically the second character so named. In the decades since, there have been primarily two approaches to stories featuring this character. There’s the cocky ladies’ man test pilot, which is how Ryan Reynolds realized him in the film. The other, less well-known, take is that Hal is a conservative (as traditionally defined in the 20th Century) hero with a rigid view of morality. Chandler is neither of these.
The show began with a young John Stewart watching an interview with Jordan who is far enough into his career as Green Lantern that he’s abandoned wearing his mask. By the time Jordan starts training Stewart in 2016, he’s been a superhero for around three decades. He also abandoned his costume along with the mask. Hal is a harsh teacher, and he seems none too pleased about training Stewart. While he retains his gut-driven arrogance about his ability to do the job, he’s also very jaded. (Pun intended.)
While we don’t yet know why, Jordan is deeply cynical to the point of being angry. So, it’s almost not surprising when the last scene of the episode flashes forward to 2026 for Stewart to find Jordan’s dead body sitting on the bleachers of the Rushville, Nebraska football field. This is the place where the investigation central to Lanterns‘ story began ten years earlier. Being a comic book series, it’s absolutely possible that this death won’t stick. He may be resurrected or the body could be one of the 14 aliens who can mimic human form mentioned earlier in the episode. Yet, a DC canon change in Lanterns means even if Jordan is dead, Chandler and the character aren’t really going anywhere.
John Stewart Is Also Very Different From DC Comics’ Third Green Lantern
After Jordan’s debut, the comics introduced his first backup Guy Gardner and then Stewart, when editors decided DC needed more heroes of color. Originally a civil rights activist, Bruce Timm’s animated Justice League retconned this origin to make him a Marine. Lanterns retains that detail, but gives John a more troubling background. After watching the interview with Jordan as a child, his father — also a Marine — takes his son in the backyard and shoots an apple off his head after first asking if he is afraid. While he is fearless, it’s clear that he’s none too pleased by Jordan’s treatment of him during their training.
The first scene in the premiere shows Hal tossing him the power ring and bailing out of the car before it careens over a cliff. John saves himself (using the ring to create a bubble wrap construct), but he’s understandably pissed off at the stunt. While walking back to meet Hal at a taco stand down the highway, John “meets” a projection of Hal’s consciousness generated by the ring. This is just a plot device to get them to Rushville, but it also creates the pathway to keeping Chandler’s Jordan around even if his death at the end of the episode sticks.
Still, despite his abrasive nature, Stewart obviously respects Jordan and says as much to another character. This is the most interesting part of their dynamic. Were Hal and John similarly antagonistic to each other, it would make for fun banter and decent drama. Yet, it serves Lanterns far better if John respects and values his predecessor’s knowledge and experience, despite all the reasons Hal gives him not to. It also gives both characters room to evolve their relationship in such a way that four or five episodes into the show that final scene is recontextualized so that viewers feel John’s sense of loss rather than just annoyance at losing out on a big name from the comics.
All told, this is a promising start for Lanterns. The nonlinear narrative — essentially a staple of Lindelof’s storytelling style from Lost to Watchmen — is a risky choice. A piece of advice I heard from Chuck Palanhiuk at Pitt once applies: You can tell an odd story, or you can tell a story oddly. Rarely can you do both successfully. Lanterns is an odd story, and the series takes the “cards down” approach that so many genre shows employ. Thus far it works, but viewers will need to be patient while the show fills in the gaps before and after the central 2016 narrative.
Rating: 4.8/5
New Lanterns episodes debut on Sundays at 9 PM on HBO and HBO Max.
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