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Lanterns Teaser Was Exactly What We Expected (That's a Good Thing)

The first teaser for Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King's Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler-starring Lanterns was exactly what we wanted.

After a wee bit of confusion involving a YouTube leak, the first official teaser for Chris Mundy (True Detective: Night Country), Damon Lindelof (Watchmen), and Tom King's (Supergirl) Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler-starring Lanterns ended up being released on Wednesday instead of today, as originally intended. Setting aside that temporary bit of drama, our first extended look at the upcoming DC Studios and HBO series did not disappoint. The growing tension between the teacher (Chandler's Hal Jordan) and the student who feels like he's ready to fly solo (Pierre's John Stewart), while still proving their effectiveness as a team, was spot-on. Basically, it did what a teaser for a show that's still five months away from premiering is supposed to do (and then some): leave me psyched, filled with questions, and wanting more. And yet, there are some folks writing off the series already based on only a little more than two minutes of footage – and those are the folks we want to speak to:

"Lanterns" Was Sold as "True Detective"-Like Since It Was First Announced: "Talking tone, it looks and feels rooted. You meet two guys, but there is wit and comedy to it that you would not expect in 'True Detective.' It is, in many ways, a buddy cop structure with travel in the story time, to and fro, that is really sophisticated. Chris Mundy has done the most amazing job with the team there, and so I think [the 'True Detective' comparison] is valid. People will still go, 'What were you talking about?' to some extent, but I would also bring in 'No Country for Old Men,' 'Fargo,' and things that have that Americana heart to them. There's a wry humor, and so there definitely is more wit and humor than there is in 'True Detective.'" That's what director James Hawes had to share about the series back in April 2025 during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, a comparison that was made by DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran when the project was first announced.

That means that if you were expecting a summer movie box office action with explosions and crazed Michael Bay-like edits and JJ Abrams-loving flare effects, you may have been watching the wrong "True Detective." The teaser was exactly the slow-burning, building dread that we wanted, and that's exactly what we got. It offered just enough of the dynamic between Chandler's Jordan and Pierre's Stewart to get us invested, and enough of the overarching mystery to make us want to see them solve it. Did you know how things were going to go with HBO's True Detective based on its teasers or trailers, or even the episode promos? Nope, and that's one of the reasons why it worked so well – as it can this series.

It's a TEASER… Not a Trailer: As we mentioned earlier… WE'RE STILL FIVE MONTHS OUT FROM THE SERIES PREMIERING, FOLKS! After conflicting examples of what constitutes a teaser, a trailer, a promo, a teaser trailer, and more over the years, folks seem to have forgotten that a trailer isn't supposed to tell you the whole story – and a teaser is meant to tell you even less than that. In fact, we were surprised by how long this teaser was; it walked the line along trailer territory. We weren't expecting to see many effects scenes at this point – especially since the summer convention season is a better time to spotlight the effects and action.

"Lanterns" Starting Local Makes Sense: It worked for Superman. It worked for Peacemaker. It should work even better with Lanterns. Some folks are complaining that the series is too earthbound and too "local" to be a Green Lantern series, given the Corps's epic history and reach, but that's actually to its advantage. Plunging viewers into the "universe" part of the DCU can be a gamble: you run the risk of giving them too much to know in too little time. By anchoring the series on Earth at the start, it's easier to introduce the larger DCU with a slower rollout. We know the series will grow in scale over time, but there's no need to rush it. If anything, it deepens the mystery because who wouldn't want to know what went down in such a small-town area that would require Green Lanterns to investigate? Maybe this explains why the DCU's Earth will have more than one Green Lantern assigned to it. And don't forget that we got that Green Lantern Corp tease at the end.

One Last Thing About "Lanterns"….: You know that like 90% of that teaser was from the first episode, right? That's what Gunn did with Superman, and I suspect King, Lindelof, and Mundy went the same route. If that's the case, then that's even more reason to be impressed.

The series spotlights new recruit John Stewart (Pierre) and legendary Lantern Hal Jordan (Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland. Along with Pierre and Chandler, the DC Studios series stars Garret Dillahunt (Fear The Walking Dead), Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire, In the Line of Duty), Poorna Jagannathan (Never Have I Ever, Deli Boys), Ulrich Thomsen (Counterpart, The Blacklist), Nicole Ari Parker (And Just Like That), Jason Ritter (Matlock), J. Alphonse Nicholson (P-Valley), Sherman Augustus (Stranger Things), Jasmine Cephas Jones (Blindspotting), Chris Coy (Bass Reeves), Paul Ben-Victor (Nobody Wants This), and Cary Christopher (Days of Our Lives). In addition, Nathan Fillion will be reprising his Superman role as Green Lantern Guy Gardner for the series. Helming the series are directors James Hawes, Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov. Based on the DC Comics Green Lantern, the series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, Gunn, Safran, King, Hawes, and Ron Schmidt.

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