This summer, DC is rebooting its shared universe of movies and TV shows with James Gunn's Superman, which will serve as the proper beginning for a new sequence of interconnected projects based on DC Comics. But while Superman is the centerpiece for this new timeline on the big screen, TV will be key to the new state of affairs — starting with the already released animated Creature Commandos series, continuing later this year with a new season of Peacemaker, and following that with Lanterns, a gritty noir mystery involving the two most famous Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart.
Since TV and streaming will be a huge part of DC's strategy during this attempt to replicate the success of the MCU, Lanterns is certainly one to pay attention to. Here's what we know about Lanterns so far.
Lanterns latest news
James Gunn and HBO dropped the first image from the series on Feb. 27, 2025 while announcing that production had begun and that Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, And Alik Sakharov had joined the series as directors. Take a look at the image below.
Lanterns premiere date
There's no info about when we should expect Lanterns to debut on HBO and Max, but it's unlikely to be soon, as the lead actors have only just been cast. Plan for a 2026 premiere for Lanterns if everything goes smoothly.
Lanterns cast and crew
We now know who will be wearing the Lantern rings on this series — Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights' Coach Taylor) will play Hal Jordan, the old hat, and Aaron Pierre, who's having a breakout moment right now thanks to his star turn in Netflix's Rebel Ridge, will play Stewart. These castings aren't just for this series — Chandler and Pierre will reprise these roles in other Green Lantern-related DC shows or movies if they stick around, and they probably will because these are the two main Green Lanterns that people know from the comics.
Lanterns will be run by Ozark showrunner Chris Mundy, with Lost's Damon Lindelof producing and co-writing.
Lanterns cast:
- Kyle Chandler as Green Lantern Hal Jordan
- Aaron Pierre as Green Lantern John Stewart
- Kelly Macdonald as Kerry, a sheriff who is also Hal's love interest
- Garrett Dillahunt as William Macon, "a self-righteous, conspiracy-minded man who masks his ruthless ambition behind a charming and calculated facade"
- Poorna Jagannathan as Zoe, a rumored love interest for John
- Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro, a rogue former member of the Green Lantern Corps
Lanterns first look
We have a picture! While we're still waiting on a real teaser video (and will probably continue to wait for a while), James Gunn was kind enough to drop our first image of the Lanterns show. It may not seem like much at a glance, but there's one very important detail to glean from this. Take a look:
The key detail is the ring on Hal's finger. Or, more specifically, the lack of a similar ring on Jon's finger. Since they're both Lanterns, they should both have their own ring — this detail, while small, is likely going to be key to the plot of the series somehow.
What will Lanterns be about, and will it be connected to Superman?
The Green Lantern Corps is basically a cosmic police organization, and Lanterns will be a detective story in which Jordan and Stewart investigate a murder in American flyover country, specifically Nebraska. Though nothing else is concrete, DC co-chief Peter Safran said in early 2023 that it's "very much in the vein of True Detective," and Variety pointed out that he seemed the most excited about Lanterns of all the upcoming DC shows.
In February 2025, showrunner Chris Mundy told Vanity Fair that "[Lanterns is] not part of a larger storytelling plan right now," referencing Gunn's new DC universe. He continued, "Season 1 is designed to be its own, complete season of television that, hopefully, will become many seasons of television."
However, Gunn said there is a connection to Superman, in the form of another Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, who will be played by Nathan Fillion in the film. "It's really so cool because it is connected to Superman because we've got Guy Gardner in that, and then we've got these green lanterns over here," Gunn said, according to Screenrant. "It's just such a different tone from what Superman is. And it's exactly what I want to bring to the DCU [which] is being able to have these very different films and television series that are still part of an overall connected world, but have completely different feels to 'em."
From the sounds of it, Lanterns will exist in the same universe as Superman, but will be separate enough that the two won't be connected story-wise. And if we're lucky, we'll see Fillion's Gardner drop by Lanterns.
Where to watch Green Lantern
While it's not a good movie in any normal sense and has no connections to other films, the 2011 Green Lantern movie, which starred Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, does still serve as a decent introduction to the Green Lantern Corps, which have not appeared elsewhere in live-action.
