This Friday, Lanterns will be the focus of a Hall H panel at the San Diego Comic-Con from 1.30 pm until 2.30 pm. We'll almost certainly get a new trailer during that as HBO and DC Studios begin one final marketing push before the show's premiere next month.
Sticking with the grounded imagery that's proven such a point of contention for fans this year, we find Hal Jordan and John Stewart in their civvies making their way through the American Heartland. The imagery here brings back memories of Hal's classic cross-country road trip with Green Arrow, albeit without any colourful costumes.
It seems, for now at least, DC Studios has no plans to relent and promote Lanterns as a superhero TV series. The last trailer hinted at some costumed action, but it's looking increasingly likely that Lanterns is more True Detective than Guardians of the Galaxy.
Lanterns takes place across two timelines: 2016 and 2026. Interestingly, almost everything we've seen in the trailers seems to be the 2016 timeline, suggesting there's more to the show than meets the eye.
As Mundy puts it, the dynamic between Hal and John is "the old guard and the heir apparent. We lean into that tension quite a bit in that early time period." Teasing "something else" for the 2026 timeline, he added, "That becomes a second mystery that we know is down the road for us. So eventually two different mysteries get worked out over the course of the show."
The duelling timelines "create emotional mysteries," and like True Detective, "It was less of a whodunnit as much as like, what happened and why? We think of this as a relationship show between John and Hal, and there's a lot to unpack over the course of the eight episodes."
Check out this new motion poster for Lanterns in the X post below.
Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
Alongside Kyle Chander and Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Nicole Ari Parker, Jason Ritter, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones round out the cast.
The pilot is co-written by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, who are co-creators for the series. Mundy serves as showrunner. The first two episodes are directed by James Hawes, with Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel and Alik Sakharov also tapped to direct.
Lanterns is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, James Gunn, Peter Safran, King, Ron Schmidt, and Hawes, and is based on the DC comic characters from Green Lantern.
Lanterns is set to premiere on HBO on August 16.