Co-creators Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King are steering "Lanterns," the new DC series set within James Gunn and Peter Safran's expanded DCU, toward a far more grounded version of the Green Lantern mythology than the one audiences saw in the poorly reviewed 2011 Ryan Reynolds film.
"We're talking about almost a century's worth of storytelling, and now we get to carry that baton," Lindelof told Variety. "But then at the same time, the audience is hungry for something original and relevant, and they want storytellers to take risks. Those risks can't feel like they're gimmicks; they have to feel like they have real emotional stakes."
The series follows Hal Jordan, played by Kyle Chandler, as he's forced to take John Stewart, played by Aaron Pierre, under his wing as a backup Green Lantern. Wielding a ring that can materialize objects, Hal operates as a kind of intergalactic space officer. The story turns dark when a string of unexplainable deaths pulls Hal and John into a small Nebraska town.
The creative team draws heavily on comic book pedigree and prior TV experience. Tom King brings his comic-writing background, while Damon Lindelof previously created the "Watchmen" television series. Chris Mundy, who served as showrunner on "Ozark," is stepping into the comic book world for the first time.
"I know that if Damon didn't work on this show, I would have used — and I think Tom would say the same — 'Watchmen' as a real touchstone of how you do a show and have it be emotional and about real people, while also honoring the comic book part of it," Mundy said.
King noted that "Lanterns" echoes "Watchmen" in its exploration of race, colonization and justice, pointing out "there's a wonderful coincidental parallel with comics that 'Watchmen,' in the '80s, set the standard for a generation of comic book writers who were like, 'Oh, we can talk about those themes using superheroes!'"
Poorna Jagannathan, who plays the conniving and mysterious Zoe, spoke to Variety at Thursday's premiere on the Paramount lot about her initial hesitation joining the project. "I thought I'd be with a green screen wearing a suit, talking to no one at all, just into the abyss," she said. "I hesitated because I didn't know this world at all. I felt like I didn't belong, actually. I felt bad that I was so ignorant about it." She added, "I don't think that only this universe will be affected by it; I think every show in the genre will be affected by what happened on 'Lanterns.' It'll be a blueprint on how to take something big and keep it with a beating heart."
How "Lanterns" performs with audiences may weigh heavily on the DCU's next steps. The franchise has already seen a hit with "Superman" and a softer reception for "Supergirl," and early talk of a second season for "Lanterns" could hinge on how viewers respond.
Lindelof acknowledged the challenge of satisfying a divided fan base. "The one thing that fans hate more than being listened to is fan service and that sort of idea of doing something just to placate them. And so I do think that fandom is not a monolith," he said. "There are some fans who want more risky, edgy sort of revisionist storytelling inside of these adaptations, and some fans who are just basically like, 'Give me what I love.'"
The series also had to navigate established DCU canon, including how it connects to John Stewart's role in "Man of Tomorrow" and the return of Guy Gardner, played by Nathan Fillion, who also appears in "Superman" and "Peacemaker." Still, Lindelof said the creative team has been given considerable latitude. "You can't go out of bounds in terms of storylines that James and Peter want to do," he said, "but artistically, they're giving us a lot of freedom to tell the story how we want."
Photo: Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
