HBO's Lanterns Has A Very Surprising Timeline Twist
In brightest day, in darkest night, in different decades.
When HBO announced Lanterns, it seemed like the perfect combination of the DC Universe and HBO’s proven TV track record. The series, which would follow two members of the Green Lantern Corps as they investigate a mystery on Earth, was supposedly heavily inspired by True Detective, one of HBO’s most iconic miniseries.
But as more and more information about the series came to light, it was hard to see the DC element. Most obviously, all of the first-look images looked very grim and dusty, not so much reflecting one of the key parts of Green Lantern as a property: the green. But now, we have our first detailed description of the show itself, and it’s got plenty of sci-fi elements, including an interesting timeline structure.
Aaron Pierre and Kyle Sheridan star as two different “space cop” Lanterns in Lanterns.
In a preview for Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Chris Mundy explained that, as terrestrial as the show is, there’s still that Green Lantern charm. “We wanted to tell an on-the-ground story, and that has a couple of different mysteries inside of it,” Mundy said. “What we have going for us is that it's a Green Lantern story. They can conjure anything from the ring. They do go off the planet. There are all these other powers that they have. We wanna use everything that's great about the mythology of the Green Lanterns, but at the same time, we wanted it to feel like an upscale mystery, a very emotionally tangible story about these people that are in it.”
But there are actually two mysteries at the core of this series. One plotline is set in 2016 after a shooting in rural Nebraska, but another is set ten years later in 2026, bringing the story up to date. Through these flash forwards, we also get a glimpse at how the DC Universe will evolve, including an appearance by Guy Gardner, the bowl-cutted Green Lantern who appeared in Superman.
The 2016 timeline of Lanterns focuses on a mystery in rural Nebraska.
This dual-timeline structure is another way Lanterns takes after True Detective, which also included flash-forwards to a time where its central two detectives were no longer speaking. “It was less of a whodunnit as much as like, what happened and why?” Mundy said. “We think of this as a relationship show between John and Hal, and there's a lot to unpack over the course of the eight episodes.”
So while this move may mean even more of an homage to its inspiration, it also addresses one of the main concerns with this series: it will, in fact, be a DC superhero story, completely with moving the canon forward and bringing in other characters. And, yes, it will be green. “I think Green Lantern fans will not feel like we've somehow made a brown show of their green comic at all,” Mundy said.
