DC’s Green Lantern Series Will Lead Into Wider DCU Story

“In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!” The oath of the Green Lantern Corps is a warning to an ancient evil rising in Sector 2814, the territory of intergalactic cops Hal Jordan and John Stewart: Earth. Last week, DC Studios co-chairs James Gunn and Peter Safran announced Lanterns, an Earth-set series on HBO Max that is part of the first chapter of their new DC Universe, titled Gods and Monsters. In this “terrestrial-based, True Detective-type mystery,” the power ring-wielding warriors will investigate a whodunit tying into an overarching story across film and television.   

Lanterns “leads into the overall story that we’re telling throughout the different movies and television shows,” Gunn said during DC’s slate presentation. “We find this ancient horror on Earth, and these guys are basically super-cops on ‘Precinct Earth.’”

Jordan and Stewart are among the Corpsmen serving the Guardians of the Universe, an ancient alien race who supervises the peacekeeping police force they created on the planet Oa. But in Lanterns, the Green Lanterns of Earth’s space sector will unravel a mystery on their own planet that “plays a big role” in a story that could crossover with other announced projects like the live-action feature films Superman: Legacy, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and Swamp Thing. 

“The story is going to weave back and forth between the films and the television shows,” explained Safran. “Peacemaker is a good example of how that works, and that’s what we’re going to do with this big overarching story that we’re telling.”

Safran added Lanterns is “a very important show for us” and a revamped version of the since-canceled Green Lanterns TV series that was in the works at the streamer from prolific Arrowverse producer Greg Berlanti. Gunn and Safran’s series is inspired in part by the “Sinestro’s Law” arc started in the 2016 Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps: Rebirth one-shot and Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps issues #1-7, which saw the tyrannical Sinestro and his Yellow Lanterns impose their rule over the universe.

Lanterns is part of a slate that includes five live-action feature films (Superman: Legacy, The Authority, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Swamp Thing), and five HBO Max series (Creature Commandos, Waller, Booster Gold, and Paradise Lost). While Creature Commandos and Waller will hit the service first, Gunn and Safran have confirmed Superman: Legacy will mark the official start of the rebooted DC Universe when it opens in theaters on July 11th, 2025.