Lanterns might not be as hyped as Superman and Batman, but it’s shaping up to be one of the most exciting projects in James Gunn’s DCU slate, with the director comparing it to True Detective and No Country for Old Men.
The Green Lantern has a complicated on-screen history. While Ryan Reynolds took a crack at Hal Jordan in 2011’s Green Lantern movie, it didn’t land – critics panned it (25% on Rotten Tomatoes), and Reynolds himself later admitted the production prioritized spectacle over character development.
HBO Max also attempted a live-action Green Lantern series in the early 2020s, but that version (with Greg Berlanti at the helm) was shelved during DCU restructuring. Lanterns takes its place, with the new TV show feeling like a genuine turning point.
With Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart investigating a murder on earth, it’s being pitched as a prestige superhero show. According to the team, there’s good reason to be excited about Lanterns.
DCU series Lanterns achieves production milestone
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gunn confirmed, “Lanterns is halfway through filming. We’re going to see early episodes of that soon.” This means it’s on track to achieve its 2026 release window.
The DC Studios co-CEO went on to say that he’s been able to have a more hands-off approach with the series as opposed to other projects such as Superman and Supergirl.
“When I find somebody really terrific – what I found with Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy and Tom King, who are running Lanterns – I read the scripts, I give them notes, but then I let them go do their thing,” he continued.
“I mean, I’ll watch the dailies, make sure everything’s going okay, and then I’ll watch when we start getting the cuts in, which I think we’re supposed to get next week or something.
“I’ll start giving them notes on the specific cuts, whereas maybe I was a little bit more involved during the writing phase, for instance, of Supergirl, because that was something that was one of the first ideas I had when I came to work at DC.”
But that’s not the only update we’ve had this week. Slow Horses director James Hawes, who helmed the first two episodes of Lanterns, appeared on the Phase Hero podcast to share more about the tone of the show.
When asked what drew him in, Hawes explained, “It’s a combination because it’s not my normal sand pit really, to go off and play in that area, but the writing. Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, you know, they’ve done things like Ozarks and True Detective.
“And the scripts have got such wit, so much character. It’s like a buddy cop movie played out, and I’ve talked about this in a sort of True Detective, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, naturalistic – it’s a buddy cop movie and then somebody flies.”
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