Peacemaker Season 2 drew to a close just a few weeks ago, but the hype for the DC Universe is only continuing to grow. The film and television projects on the immediate horizon are set to traverse genres and comic canon in some fun ways… and it sounds like that will absolutely be the case with Lanterns.
The live-action HBO series is set to (finally) return the Green Lantern mythos to live-action, through Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) partnering up to solve a True Detective-esque mystery. The most we’ve seen of Lanterns so far is a single casual (but still reverential to the comics) promotional photo, which has naturally led to a lot of speculation and curiosity about how the world of the Lantern Corps will be brought to life. But honestly, one quote from a recent Men’s Health profile on Pierre might have just sold the show in the best way yet.
“We wanted it to be as much of a buddy cop show as a superhero show,” Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy explained in the interview. “Kyle’s character has kind of a throwback Chuck Yeager vibe to him. He’s the kind of guy who you meet, and you don’t know whether you like him or you want to punch him. Then there’s Aaron, who has a quiet authority about him, and I think that’s important to their dynamic, to the story we’re telling. And literally from day one, Kyle started giving Aaron shit for being young and inexperienced. And then Aaron started giving Kyle shit for being an old man. You’d see it in between takes too—they’d start messing with each other would just keep sitting there playing with that dynamic in the best way. And because all the dialog is supposed to be in a very back-and-forth, style they were into that rhythm before they even got into those scenes.”
Hal and John’s dynamic is going to be GOOD.
In the years since Ryan Reynolds played Hal in 2011’s infamous Green Lantern movie, the franchise has gone through a lot of stops and starts. Many tried and failed to reboot the Corps as a movie or show, often (but not always) as a “buddy cop” story between Hal and John. Names were attached to scripts and casting rumors swirled (I still remember the dog days of people thinking Tom Cruise would play Hal), but the pieces never seemed to completely fall into place for anything to actually become a reality.
As Lanterns has become a reality, there have been some elements that fans have needed convincing on: mainly, the seemingly-grounded tone and the idea of aging up Hal past his prime years. But if Chandler and Pierre’s dynamic is already so strong that they were lovingly poking fun at each other offscreen, then their onscreen dynamic as Hal and John is most likely going to be really special.
Ever since John was introduced in the comics in the 1970s, his and Hal’s rapport has been an interesting one. They are undeniably friends, but their different backgrounds and social privileges and approaches to the duty of the Lantern Corps don’t always lead to them seeing eye to eye. That feels like something that previous failed incarnations of a Green Lantern reboot maybe failed to grasp, but it sounds like Lanterns will capture it wholeheartedly.
In a way, that shouldn’t be unsurprising, given how important chemistry has already been when casting other DCU roles. But it still feels like a breath of fresh air, even before we even see Lanterns‘ superhero suits or constructs or potential space villains.
(featured image: DC Studios)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
