Lanterns trailer lands: True Detective meets Green Lantern (video).
For decades, the Green Lantern corner of DC has had a curious relationship with live action. Sometimes it has been magnificent. Sometimes it has been… well… Ryan Reynolds still occasionally apologises for 2011. Now DC Studios appears determined to prove that the universe’s intergalactic police force deserves something a little more prestigious than giant CGI race tracks.
The first full trailer for Lanterns has arrived, and rather than leaning into colourful cosmic fireworks, it takes an unexpectedly grounded approach. Imagine True Detective wandering into the DC Universe, borrowing a power ring, and discovering that somebody has committed a murder with implications stretching well beyond one small American town.
The eight-part HBO series launches on 17th August via HBO Max in the UK and Ireland, pairing veteran Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) with rookie John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). One is an old hand who’s seen enough of the universe to know that everything eventually becomes someone else’s problem. The other is still learning that policing an entire galaxy probably involves more paperwork than the recruitment brochure suggested.
The official synopsis describes the pair as intergalactic police officers investigating an Earth-based murder that gradually reveals much larger cosmic connections. The trailer certainly sells the mystery first, with plenty of brooding landscapes, suspicious locals, strange lights and the nagging feeling that something ancient is stirring just out of sight.
Long-time DC readers will know that the Green Lantern Corps has always been one of the publisher’s richest concepts. Created by John Broome and Gil Kane in the Silver Age, the Corps transformed the Green Lantern mantle from Alan Scott’s magical lantern into a vast peacekeeping organisation spanning thousands of inhabited worlds. Every Lantern carries a power ring capable of creating almost anything its wearer can imagine, fuelled by willpower. Which, admittedly, makes annual performance reviews rather awkward.
John Stewart himself has become one of DC’s most popular heroes, thanks in no small part to the Justice League animated series, where an entire generation of fans grew up assuming he had always been Earth’s Green Lantern. Hal Jordan remains the classic test pilot whose fearless nature made him one of the Corps’ greatest officers, although comic readers will also remember the occasions when things… got a little emotionally complicated. Possession by cosmic fear entities tends to leave a mark on your personnel file.
The cast is packed with familiar faces beyond its two leads. Kelly Macdonald, Laura Linney, Garret Dillahunt, Jason Ritter, Poorna Jagannathan and Ulrich Thomsen all appear, while Nathan Fillion reprises Guy Gardner following his introduction into James Gunn’s expanding DC Universe. Whether Guy’s famously abrasive personality makes the investigation easier or considerably worse remains to be seen.
Behind the camera is where things become particularly interesting. Showrunner Chris Mundy previously steered Ozark, while Damon Lindelof’s fingerprints are all over television’s more thoughtful genre offerings, from Lost to HBO’s superb Watchmen. Tom King brings comic pedigree after acclaimed runs on Mister Miracle, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Batman. James Hawes directs the opening episodes, setting the tone before handing over to a team including Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel and Alik Sakharov.
The trailer wisely avoids explaining too much. Instead it hints at conspiracy, old secrets and the sort of creeping cosmic horror that fits comfortably alongside police procedural rather than traditional superhero spectacle. There are flashes of emerald constructs, enough ring-powered action to reassure comic fans, but the emphasis stays firmly on character and mystery.
Here at SFcrowsnest, we’re rather fond of the idea that superhero television doesn’t always have to save the multiverse before the opening credits have finished rolling. Sometimes watching two cosmic coppers investigate one suspicious corpse can be every bit as compelling. Besides, somebody has to patrol Sector 2814. The paperwork isn’t going to file itself.
If the finished series lives up to the atmosphere of this first trailer, Lanterns could finally give DC’s emerald guardians the live-action adaptation they’ve been waiting for all these years.
