HBO released the first trailer for Lanterns earlier this month, and it was immediately met with a mixed response from fans. The series has been billed as being in the same vein as True Detective from the start, but seeing that—and a distinct lack of cosmic action—didn't sit right with some.
While there's a good chance Oa, Green Lantern constructs, and space-set scenes will feature elsewhere in the series, Lanterns appears to be a reinvention of the mythos that grounds Hal Jordan and John Stewart firmly in reality...and on Earth.
Seeing as Lanterns has enlisted writer Tom King, who put a bold new spin on characters like Supergirl and Vision on the page, this isn't overly surprising. Throw in Damon Lindelof's involvement after his acclaimed Watchmen sequel (which took some big swings with the material), and the show having little in common with 2011's Green Lantern isn't hugely surprising.
After fans complained about the lack of green in the Lanterns sneak peek, past comments from Lindelof resurfaced in which he said, "It's called Lanterns, because we all agreed that the 'Green' was stupid." Needless to say, that only made things worse.
On his Substack, acclaimed comic book writer Grant Morrison (All-Star Superman, Batman, Green Lantern), had some thoughts on DC Studios' approach to this corner of the DCU.
"TV writer/producer Damon Lindelof’s comments notwithstanding, the 'Green' in 'Green Lantern(s)' green is not 'stupid'. Why does a writer attach himself to this kind of narrative if he thinks it’s fundamentally 'stupid'? You don’t hand CSI scripts to patronising writers who condemn forensics experts and their haircuts as 'stupid', so why hire people who are ashamed and in denial about the comic book material they’ve been assigned to develop? Why don’t they turn down jobs they’re not suited for?"
"It’s not like he needs the money, and Lindelof has proven that he can come up with his own ideas. What is this jockish dismissal of superhero conventions intended to prove anyway? Does Lindelof imagine it makes him seem less nerdy? It’s a bit too late for that, so what’s it all about? The only people who give a [frick] about the Lanterns TV series are Green Lantern fans. Why alienate them at the start? That feels more like 'stupid'."
"'Green Lanterns' is a much more evocative and dramatic title than 'Lanterns', (just as 'Raise the Red Lantern' is a better movie title than 'Raise the Lantern'), and anyone who can’t grasp why that is shouldn’t be anywhere near superhero stories. The show might even be good, but how much better could this stuff be if studios were willing to hire the right people for the job instead of phoning their embarrassed friends to water the source material down? Hollywood will die of insularity and inbreeding."
While Lindelof's comments appeared to be in jest, the show's title and trailer are a clear indication that DC Studios is taking a new approach that largely moves away from how these characters are portrayed on the page. It was always hard to imagine "Green Lantern" being a good fit for HBO, so stripping away the "Green" and all those other comic book elements was perhaps inevitable.
Assuming Lanterns ends with John becoming the DCU's main Green Lantern, James Gunn can always bring him more in line with his comic book counterpart in Man of Tomorrow (which Aaron Pierre is now confirmed to star in).
In other DCU news, it seems Booster Gold is back to square one...