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Since the coalition of intergalactic space cops known as the Green Lantern Corps first debuted in the pages of DC Comics in 1959, more than 7,200 individuals have donned a construct-conjuring green Power Ring to protect their corner of space from those who would seek to do it harm. The first question, then, that any Green Lantern story must answer is “what Lanterns are we talking about here?”
It turns out that was never much of a question at all for Chris Mundy, co-creator of the HBO series Lanterns.
“It was always going to be John and Hal,” Mundy says. “There was never a doubt.”
Of all the men, women, and vegetables who have recited the Green Lantern oath over the years, none are more iconic than Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Created by John Broome and Gil Kane and debuting in 1959, Hal Jordan is a handsome fighter pilot with a penchant for rubbing people the wrong way. His eventual replacement, the steady John Stewart, was created by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams and followed in 1971.
Hal and John have appeared together on countless occasions in comics and animated media. But Lanterns represents the first time they will team up in live action. In fact, Hal hasn’t been seen in the flesh since Ryan Reynolds portrayed him in 2011’s poorly received Green Lantern film, and John Stewart has never made it to the three-dimensional world at all, with Wayne T. Carr’s John Stewart having been cut from Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
The creators of Lanterns—which consist of an HBO drama veteran (True Detective writer Mundy), a comic book mastermind (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow scribe Tom King), and a combination of them both (HBO’s Watchmen creator Damon Lindelof)—didn’t pair Hal and Jordan together simply as a hat tip to comic book fans. The duo’s strained, bickering dynamic operates as the series’ creative backbone.
“It’s brand new inside the story of Green Lanterns, but there’s a real tradition of ‘buddy cop’ [storytelling],” Mundy says, comparing the show’s vibe to the film Midnight Run. “There’s affection, but there’s also some aggression back and forth. The series was written to be in the rhythm of the banter of those two guys.”
Taking place over two modern timelines, Lanterns’ eight episodes follow Kyle Chandler as grizzled veteran superhero Jordan and Aaron Pierre as Green Lantern-in-training Stewart. As the two head off to Rushville, Nebraska, to investigate a murder with potential extraterrestrial implications, Hal can’t help but wonder if the student hoisted upon him by his Guardians of the Universe bosses isn’t, in fact, his replacement.
“We felt like none of us had ever seen a superhero show that dealt with someone aging,” Mundy says. “You’re going to hit a time where you’re like LeBron. Do you retire? You’ve got good years left in you. They might not be the exact same as your early years, but you’re still one of the best players in the game. What do you do? We thought that tension was interesting.”
Providing the more seasoned half of that tension is Kyle Chandler, a TV legend best known for his five-season run as the sagacious Coach Eric Taylor on NBC football drama Friday Night Lights. Chandler proved a perfect fit for the role, and not only because the Nebraska crime scene Hal and John investigate happens to be on a high school football field.
“We had this idea of Hal as a real Chuck Yeager type,” Mundy says, referring to the famous real-life fighter pilot and sound barrier-breaker. “[Hal] was going to be hazing John a lot, so you need somebody who is able to do that but is also likable. Once Kyle bubbled up, he seemed obvious. Now it seems funny that we ever threw out another name.”
Finding the right John Stewart was a bit trickier for Lanterns, which is understandable given the character’s ever-changing comic book history. Physically modeled after actor Sidney Poitier by his creators, John Stewart was introduced in the ‘70s to present a Black superhero who better reflected the racial makeup of the world’s population. Early iterations of the character made him an explicitly political figure participating in the Black Power movement. He was then made an architect in the 1980s and fully retconned into having U.S. Marine origins in 2001.
Lanterns borrows from all of these sources to create the most fully-realized iteration of the steadfast Lantern yet. The show also introduces its own fascinating (and spoiler-y) update to John’s backstory that better explains his motivations. Entrusted to capture all of these disparate elements is young actor Aaron Pierre, whose quiet intensity turned Netflix actioner Rebel Ridge into an unexpected hit.
“The list [for John Stewart] was probably 50 people long at the beginning,” Mundy reports. “John is a Marine but he’s also an artist. There are very few people as physically intimidating and also gifted as Aaron. He’s a very sort of quiet and thoughtful human, and that artist side is there. It’s a bit of a magic trick.”
Serving as a mediating influence between Hal and John’s bickering is Sheriff Kerry Kane, played by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald. Once a resident of a lil’ city called Gotham, the pragmatic lawwoman has retired to a quieter life in Nebraska to be with her husband Billy Macon (Jason Ritter), son of the town’s powerful ranch boss William Macon (Garrett Dillahunt). Or at least it was a quieter life until two Green Lanterns rolled in.
“She’s got a bit of history,” Macdonald teases. “Kerry is sort of in the middle, she can get on with everybody. She can clearly see how irritating Hal Jordan is, so she sympathizes with John. At the same time, Hal’s got a very winning personality. He’s fun to bicker with.”
As Kerry’s Gotham origins suggest, Lanterns is very cognizant of the fact that it’s part of a larger shared storytelling universe that kicked off with James Gunn’s Superman last summer. With that comes the opportunity to not only drop some deepcut Lantern easter eggs (comic fans will perk up at the mention of the phrase “Mogo doesn’t socialize”) but also introduce figures from other projects in the burgeoning DCU.
Yes, this is all to say that, yes, Nathan Fillon’s offensively bowl-cutted Green Lantern Guy Gardner stops by for a cameo.
“Oh my god, it was great!” Mundy gushes about Fillion’s appearance. “He’s in a handful of scenes and is so funny and so good, and so dead-on. He’d done his part in Superman already, obviously, but it was kind of like he had been around all of us for months and had been in rehearsals. He has so much fun with it. He just knows the line of how far to go and how far to push it.”
Among Hal, John, and Guy, that’s three Lanterns down for the new DCU. Only approximately 7,200 more to go.
Lanterns premieres Aug. 16 on HBO.
The post ‘It Was Always Going to Be John and Hal’ How HBO Found its Lanterns appeared first on Den of Geek.
