Following the inclusion of Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner in Superman and Peacemaker Season 2 last year, the DC Universe is pointing the spotlight directly on the Green Lantern mythology on the 2026 TV schedule with HBO’s Lanterns. Although Guy will pop up in the series, we’ll chiefly be following along Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart. However, after watching the first Lanterns trailer, I’m concerned about the kind of dynamic we’re getting between these two characters in the upcoming DC TV show.
If you’ve been following along with Lanterns’ development, you know that the show will depict Hal as a veteran Green Lantern who’s training rookie John. The trailer reveals that Hal’s been showing John the ropes for two months, but the latter hasn’t even put on the ring yet that allows him to channel the emerald energy of willpower. He’ll soon get his chance, and not just with that jumping out of the car stunt Hal pulls. The two men will be investigating a mysterious murder in Nebraska, and you know there’s going to be an extraterrestrial bent to this if Green Lanterns are getting involved.
That’s all well and good. Do I wish this first Lanterns trailer had shown off some of the show’s cosmic flavor or at least given us a quick peek of Hal or John in their Green Lantern suits? Yes, but I also realize DC and HBO have to be smart about marketing Lanterns this early on and not reveal too much. However, going off this first preview, I’m puzzled about Hal and John seemingly like they have an overly antagonistic dynamic with each other.
I can buy Hal calling John a “f---ing substitute teacher” if he’s taking a more drill sergeant-y approach with his Green Lantern training, and I’ll even play along with him driving that car off the cliff as a trial by fire for the new recruit. However, I find it weird that John’s going so far as to say that he does a better job of protecting people than Hal does, and that his mentor’s time is up. At the same time, Hal doesn’t sound like he’s thrilled to be training John, whether as his direct successor or a backup Green Lantern like he started off as in the comics.
It makes sense that Lanterns will have somewhat of a buddy cop vibe to it, meaning that there will naturally be some friction between Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Still, I can’t help but wonder why they seem to be overly hostile with each other. Assuming this isn’t just a misdirect with the way the trailer is cut, at what point during the show will these two start to feel like proper partners? Or, if Lanterns is pulling from one of Hal’s darker periods in the comics, are we going to see his fall from grace and transformation into Parallax stemming from the events that take place in this Nebraska town?
These questions and many more will be answered when Lanterns premieres on HBO sometime in August, and episodes will also be streamable with an HBO Max subscription. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre’s co-stars include Kelly Macdonald as Kerry Macon, Garret Dillahunt as William Macon, and Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro, among others. The series is the brainchild of Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King, with Mundy serving as showrunner.
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