At long last, we finally know when Lanterns will premiere on HBO. DC Studios co-head James Gunn announced on social media that Lanterns will drop on August 16. Just a few more months.
Lanterns Will Premiere in August
What Happened to the Teaser?
A teaser trailer for Lanterns was released last month, but fans noticed that the teaser had been quietly removed from all platforms. Naturally, this sparked a lot of speculation, but the truth is rather boring. According to Entertainment Weekly, it all comes down to music licensing.
“The original version of the Lanterns trailer included licensed music that expired and was taken offline until it could be replaced with an evergreen version,” reads the report. “It’s a fairly common practice when it comes to trailer and teaser assets that contain licensed tracks.” The track in question was a remix of Bruce Springsteen’s State Trooper.
Different Time Periods
Lanterns follows Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) in a True Detective-style mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland. The rest of the cast includes Kelly Macdonald as Sheriff Kerry, Garret Dillahunt as William Macon, Poorna Jagannathan as Zoe, and Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro.
One way the show is similar to True Detective is that it will span different time periods. “Our story takes place in a couple of different time periods and so the challenge was for the characters be consistent at their core,” said co-creator/showrunner Chris Mundy. “John’s sort of a different person in one of them than he is in another. And I do think the physicality and magnetism that Aaron brings to the role brought that all together. That theater training, that wanting to be in the minutia of the work and the craft, it really added to John’s character from all sides. It added dimension to the more physical side of the role, and to the more emotional, creative part of the role.“
I’m intrigued by what we’ve seen so far, but it’s noticeably light on actual Green Lantern action, and the colour green is largely absent. Lanterns co-creator and writer Damon Lindelof also sparked controversy by making a joke about the show’s title. “It’s called Lanterns, because we all agreed that the Green was stupid, so now it’s just Lanterns,” he said. After the outcry, he apologized.
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