Lanterns Trailer Has Hardly Any Green Lanterns And That’s Okay

Since the dawn of creation, the Guardians of the Universe have sought to atone for the sin of one of their own, a scientist whose meddling introduced evil into our reality. Those efforts reached their potential with the creation of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic team of peacekeepers who protect their space sectors by using powerful rings. These rings harness the user’s willpower to create whatever constructs they imagine, and have been used to stop mad gods, conquerors of galaxies, and weaponers from the anti-matter universe.

None of which appear in the first teaser trailer for Lanterns. Instead, the two-and-half minute teaser follows veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) across a dusty landscape. The duo butt heads with local sheriffs and infiltrate meetings full of rednecks. While we do get a glimpse of a uniform and even an actual green lantern (the power battery the Lanterns use to charge their rings), no constructs or emerald energy appear on the screen.

And yet, Lanterns absolutely feels like a Green Lantern TV show.

The central appeal all comes down to Chandler’s take on Hal Jordan, older and more grizzled than we’ve seen in previous non-comic book incarnations. Jordan was the first Silver Age Green Lantern, created by Gil Kane and John Broome for 1959’s Showcase Comics #22. A test pilot who gets recruited into the Green Lantern Corps after his predecessor Abin Sur dies in a crash landing, Jordan quickly became the most dashing hero in the DC Universe—a quality helped by the fact that Kane modeled his look after Paul Newman.

For 1990s relaunch Green Lantern #1, artist Pat Broderick aged-up Jordan, giving him white streaks in his hair to match the twinkle in his eye. The older look suited a narrative about Jordan drifting through the American west after the Guardians disbanded the Green Lantern Corps. By the end of that story, Jordan joined with fellow human Lanterns Stewart and Guy Gardner (whom moviegoers met in last summer’s Superman) to take down a mad Guardian who had been stealing cities from various planets, including Earth.

With his dusty leather jacket and salt-and-pepper hair, Chandler fully looks the part of the Jordan from those comics. Even better is the incredible charm he brings to Jordan, even at his cockiest. This version of Jordan has already seen it all and, unlike his fresh-faced partner Stewart, isn’t overwhelmed by the mystery that’s facing them.

Chandler’s calm elevates Lanterns from the generic buddy cop show it initially seems to be. Take the previously leaked scene of Jordan testing Stewart by driving a car off a cliff. Even Martin Riggs at his most loony or Jake Peralta at his most obnoxious wouldn’t attempt something like that, but Jordan treats the act as a reasonable part of training—a point that Stewart apparently concedes when he meets back up with Hal after surviving the incident.

Lanterns certainly takes its cues from grounded police shows, most obviously True Detective. But the trailer never forgets that these are space cops with fantastic powers. Even the few glimpses of Jordan flying and the tease of a construct is more than enough to remind us that he and Stewart are indeed superheroes.

The trailer nails the personalities of its central characters and presents us with a compelling mystery. Even if the show doesn’t culminate with Qwardians, Volthoom, or any other far-out concept from the comics, Lanterns is a Green Lantern show through and through.

Lanterns premieres on HBO Max in August 2026.