The first trailer for Lanterns is out, and despite how divisive it is online, nobody should be worried. Lanterns is the DCU’s third HBO series, coming after Creature Commandos and Peacemaker season 2. It will finally introduce Hal Jordan and John Stewart to the DCU, fleshing out the world of the Green Lanterns after the introduction of Guy Gardner in Superman. While this was expected to be incredibly exciting for fans of the Green Lantern franchise, it ended up causing all kinds of discourse online.
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Rather than being a colorful space adventure full of aliens and constructs, Lanterns has taken things in an entirely new direction. It is a True Detective-inspired series that follows an aged Hal Jordan as his protege, John Stewart, as they investigate the strange goings-on in a mysterious town in Nebraska. This is a far cry from what fans would expect out of a Green Lantern project, and while many viewers of the trailer think that this is a bad sign for the series, they should have trust that Lanterns will be great.
Lanters Comes From The Creator Of HBO’s Watchmen
Despite the worries, Lanterns will probably be incredible thanks to its creators, The series comes from Chris Mundy, Tom King, and most importantly for this conversation, Damon Lindelof. Lindelof is the writer of projects like Prometheus, Star Trek Into Darkness, and World War Z, as well as the creator of shows like The Leftovers and Watchmen.
HBO’s Watchmen show is critically acclaimed, with many saying that it is the best live-action superhero series of all time. However, ahead of the show’s release, it received a lot of the same worries that Lanterns is currently facing. Watchmen isn’t a faithful adaptation of the comic book series. Instead, it is a sequel to the comic, focusing on all-new characters years after the events of the source material.
The show features new superheroes, makes major retcons to characters from the comics, and focuses on heavy topics like police and racial injustice in the United States. The trailer made these changes to the source material clear, and based on how different it looked, many fans were worried. When Watchmen was finally released, however, it was met with instant acclaim. HBO’s Watchmen took things in a new direction, but it was still faithful to the spirit of the comics. Newcomers and fans of the source material praise the HBO show, proving that it can still be an incredible take on the comics despite its differences.
Now, Lanterns seems to be doing the same thing. Lindelof pulled this trick off with Watchmen, and it is likely that he is doing something similar with his new HBO comic book show. Lanterns will probably reveal deeper ties to the source material and the broader DCU as the show goes on. After all, we’ve only seen around two minutes of footage out of the entire series. We still don’t really know what Lanterns is about, and it could end up being full of green suits, aliens, and Lantern constructs.
The DCU Has Already Proven That It Is Great When It Makes Drastic Changes
Lanterns is making some drastic changes to the DC Comics characters, but the DCU has already established that this is where it works best. Some of the characters that Creature Commandos adapted were in name only, with Frankenstein’s monster being basically nothing like his DC Comics counterpart. The show was full of original characters and storylines, yet it still became a great series.
The same can be said for Peacemaker season 2, which turned the character into a multiversal traveler. Even Superman, which adapted the most iconic superhero of all time, made a drastic change by revealing that the Kryptonians were evil colonizers who sent Clark to Earth in order to take over the planet. However, this change made perfect sense, as it played into the themes that James Gunn wanted to explore.
Now, Lanterns is the next DCU project making major changes. The controversy surrounding the show makes sense, as Superman‘s big change wasn’t advertised, and Peacemaker and Creature Commandos focus on less popular characters. Nevertheless, Lanterns‘ changes are undoubtedly a big swing, but based on the track records of Lindelof and the DCU, the show will probably be a hit.
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Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme -
Image Courtesy of MAPPA -
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
