DC’s ‘Lanterns’ teaser proves we have the perfect Hal Jordan & John Stewart
The Supergirl teaser trailer isn’t the only DC thing that’s about to break the Internet this week. On Friday, as part of HBO’s slew of announcements for their 2026 programming, the first look at footage from the upcoming Lanterns television series was revealed.
There were already a ton of expectations riding on the series: as the first DC Universe project to land on HBO, and as the first live-action Green Lantern project after over a decade of jokes and failed stops and starts. And if this footage is any indication, the show is absolutely going to knock it out of the park.
Honestly, you can get that vibe just based on the few seconds shown both in this video and in the larger HBO sizzle reel. After a few disparate shots of Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) investigating a mystery, the main moment of the footage sells things perfectly. As the two of them sit in a moving car, Hal takes off his Green Lantern ring and argues that, “You’re not ready to get up in front of the class until the ring says you are.” He then tucks and rolls completely out of the car, leaving John to quickly fend for himself before he and the vehicle are sent off a cliff. It’s such a small moment… but in just a matter of seconds, it sells the two characters better than many Green Lantern fans could have possibly imagined.
Hal Jordan, I love you already.
While Chandler’s casting (and the idea of the DCU’s Hal Jordan being older to begin with) sparked a bit of discourse at first, the tide has started to turn for the better with each new piece of information we get about the show. The first-look photo for Lanterns released earlier this year sold Hal’s vibe perfectly: disheveled, but determined. He looked like someone who could (and probably has) valiantly fought as a Green Lantern for a while, even if he’s not really ever had a concrete plan while doing so, and who is now being tested by the arrival of this younger protege.
And this Lanterns footage, and particularly the moment with the car, seals that even further. One of my favorite quotes about Hal comes from comic writer Kurt Busiek, who argues that he’s “the kind of guy who will jump off a cliff because he’ll figure out something to do on the way down.” In lieu of him literally jumping off a cliff, it’s a brilliant choice to introduce him to the Lanterns audience by having him go without his superpowers, willingly fall out of a moving car, but still trust that he and John will make it out of things okay.
Meanwhile, Pierre’s John gets to be the ideal straight man: befuddled by his mentor’s decisions, and unaware of just how much he’s going to grow while becoming a part of the Lantern Corps. Their dynamic has already been teased before we even saw this footage, with showrunner Chris Mundy revealing in a recent Men’s Health profile that Chandler and Pierre would even playfully give each other shit off-camera. It’s the kind of rapport that these two characters have deserved for years — and HBO and DC Studios found the perfect way to sell it to us in no time at all.
(featured image: HBO / DC Studios)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
