On March 4th, the teaser for the upcoming HBO Max series Lanterns was released. Lots of fans were already speculating and breaking down what may occur in the show, even before the trailer was released, so this show already has a lot riding on it.
The show is set in James Gunn’s newly established DCU and will star the two Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). The show will also bring back Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, who recently appeared in both Superman and Peacemaker season 2.
The teaser shows an older Hal Jordan training a younger John Stewart to become a Green Lantern. The dynamic between John and Hal is very fun. Hal played the more laid-back, wisecracking hero, while John played a very serious character. 
Despite the dynamic, the fact that they are shown strictly on Earth is deeply concerning.
Green Lantern is a character who explores the cosmos and fights intergalactic threats, so the fact that the show seems to be set on Earth is very disappointing and limits the Green Lantern storyline.
On top of that, the teaser looks very bland. The teaser takes place in the middle of Nebraska, where Hal and John are investigating a murder. This isn’t a typical Green Lantern story, as the Lanterns don’t often deal in detective work or crime drama-esque plots. I would normally be open to a unique story for the character, but I suspect this will be a Green Lantern show disguised as a crime drama-thriller.
In the past, many projects, such as Arrow or the Dark Knight trilogy, would adapt comic characters while making them “realistic”. Making these characters “realistic” can take away from the source material the creators are adapting.
For example, Green Arrow is supposed to be a character who dresses like Robin Hood and takes down billionaires and corrupt corporations, using a variety of arrows, including boxing gloves and freeze effects. Instead, what we got was a dark hooded vigilante going by “Arrow” who tried too hard to be dark and edgy like Batman.
Speaking of Batman, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy was supposed to be grounded and realistic, but by being realistic, it took away many of the fantastical elements that make Batman so interesting. Batman’s gadgets were not as fun or comic-book-esque in the films.
Many fantastical villains, like Clayface, were never adapted, and those that were adapted were toned down or changed to fit the grounded world Nolan was building.
By shying away from the source material these characters originated from, you’re taking away what makes them special.
Green Lantern is a space cop, yet all the material we’ve seen for this show is Hal Jordan and John Stewart in normal clothes in the middle of nowhere, with barely any costumes in sight. The only look we got of the costume was a quick shot in a closet. The costume is way overdesigned with random lines and plating, but the biggest sin by far is its almost-brownish-green color. The Green Lanterns are supposed to be unashamedly bright green. The Lanterns are supposed to vary in bright colors like green, blue, red, orange, and yellow, but instead, all we’ve seen is an ugly, muted green.
They showed a little teaser of the rest of the Green Lantern Corps.
John Stewart asks Hal Jordan if he’s ever talked to the other lanterns, to which he responds, “I’m the only human, they’re aliens. One of them’s a f******* squirrel.”
This part of the teaser hints that Ch’p, a squirrel alien lantern, exists in the DCU, which very much pleases me, but also the way they talk about the character almost sounds like they are mocking the source material. I think a fun poke at the comics is fine, but here it sounds more like the joke is meant to make fun of the Green Lantern books for including diverse aliens. Hal Jordan is supposed to communicate with the other lanterns. They are a team, and this bit alone destroys the chance of Hal having a friendship with Kilowog, an alien lantern Hal is friends with in the comics.
All these small critiques add up and make me worry about what’s to come. We see Hal fly and show his ring, but no costume is worn in the teaser by either lantern at all. It hardly feels like a Green Lantern story.
It feels almost as if the people behind the project are ashamed of the source material they are adapting. This is reinforced by the show’s co-writer, Damon Lindelof, saying things like, “It’s called ‘Lanterns'” because we all agreed that the green was stupid.”
Although this could be a joke, take this and add the concerns I already have with the trailer, and that argument isn’t as convincing.
My main hope is that all of this worry is unwarranted and we are shown more in the latter trailers, but for now, all we can do is wait to hear more details about the show. From what we already know now, I am pretty worried about how things will turn out for the reputation of the Green Lantern character. The 2011 Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds was so bad that it gave the character a horrible reputation, when in reality, Green Lantern is a very fun and interesting character.
A lot of his character revolves around will and self-confidence. I think showing the lanterns struggling with that could be interesting. Both lanterns could be struggling with confidence/willpower, with Hal Jordan being on the older side as a lantern and John Stewart being new/inexperienced. Lanterns can also be really creative with their constructs, creating items like baseball gloves, vehicles, teddy bears, and armour. I hope this adaptation of the Green Lantern mythos shows casual audiences that.
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