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The upcoming Lanterns series from the DCU looks nothing like what most fans have come to expect from superhero stories. The series brings in a legacy hero who was one of the first new DC heroes in the Silver Age of comics (Hal Jordan) to work with his new trainee, a hero who has a strong legacy himself thanks to 2000s animated DC Justice League shows (John Stewart). However, unlike most depictions of the Green Lantern Corps, there is a lot of animosity shining through in the trailers. Lanterns creators Chris Mundy and Tom King revealed in a recent interview that this relationship is going to drive the series.
In an interview with CBR, Mundy said, “Ultimately it’s, it’s a show about John and Hal’s relationship, and that relationship is going to feel, fully realized and, in a way, you’ll have taken them a great distance back to each other by the time this is all done.”
Image Courtesy of DC Studios
The Lanterns panel at San Diego Comic-Con revealed that people in the DC Universe love Hal Jordan, and he has been the Green Lantern long enough for the autograph-seeking children’s mothers to be fans of him. However, one person he does not get along with is John Stewart. That said, there might be an explanation for this. At the panel, there was footage of John Stewart fighting with Hal Jordan, and outside the room as they fought, a red light was shining, and DC fans know that red is the color of rage in the Lanterns’ spectrum.
The trailers show this anger and distance between the two Green Lanterns (with Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner also showing up as a third Lantern Corps member). It is also shown through the temptation that Sinestro gives to Hal when he asks him what he thinks Stewart is (“My replacement“). The Manhunters are coming, a robotic group that the Guardians created before banishing them and replacing them with the Green Lantern Corps. These Manhunters know the Green Lanterns’ weakness, and they could be bringing the red rage with them to pit their enemies against each other before their attack.
This is why this series, at least in the trailers, looks like nothing that any other superhero series does. It takes a legacy hero and makes him look like a terrible person, although from the advance footage screened, it seems that the viewers might be witnessing this from the point of view of John Stewart, and that might be influenced by the rage of the Red Lantern Corps. King said this relationship is what drives the entire series.
“Both in the performances and their relationship and the whole thing, there’s a ticking time bomb in this show, and […] you can feel that tension build and build and build,” King said. “It does explode, and when it does, it just knocks you out.”
Lanterns premieres on HBO Max on August 16th, and the first season will run for eight episodes.
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