‘Lanterns’ Showrunner Fires Back at Fan Backlash, Promises a Green Lantern Series Worthy of HBO’s Legacy
The debate around HBO’s upcoming DC series ‘Lanterns‘ has been simmering since the first trailer dropped, and now the man steering the ship is speaking up. Showrunner Chris Mundy has officially responded to the backlash the drama has been dealing with ever since that divisive first look was released. His message is clear, what looks like restraint is actually a deliberate creative vision, not a retreat from the mythology fans love.
The backlash originated when the first trailer failed to show Hal Jordan and John Stewart suiting up, using their power rings, or creating any of the Corps’ signature constructs. For a franchise defined by spectacular emerald energy weapons and cosmic scale, that absence hit hard. HBO even responded with a tongue-in-cheek social media post joking about the complaints, pointing out a green basket of food in one shot of the trailer. Funny, sure, but it did little to quiet the more fundamental concerns about the show’s direction.
Sitting down with ComicBook, Mundy was asked if taking an approach less obviously geared toward the typical superhero style and more akin to HBO’s legacy shows was a challenging prospect. “It was less challenging than it was just exciting. Our take was that we have this incredibly rich mythology within the Green Lantern canon, and we have this incredibly rich history of Sunday night HBO shows, everything from The Sopranos to Game of Thrones and in between,” he told ComicBook.
The balancing act Mundy describes is genuinely ambitious. The show appears to draw heavily from ‘Green Lantern: Earth One’ and the iconic Denny O’Neil and Neil Adams ‘Green Lantern/Green Arrow’ “Hard Traveling Heroes” storyline, reimagining the Green Lantern story as grounded science fiction rather than the space-adventure series of the Silver Age comics. That is a bold interpretive choice, but it is not without precedent in prestige comic adaptations.
The controversy is not entirely new for the production. Co-creator Damon Lindelof previously sparked outrage by calling the color green “stupid,” which led iconic comic book writer Grant Morrison to publicly call out the creators for appearing to look down on the source material. Lindelof later apologized and called the remark a “dumb joke,” expressing his admiration for the Green Lantern mythology, and Morrison accepted the apology. That exchange left a mark, and Mundy’s comments arrive in that already charged atmosphere.
The eight-episode series stars Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, a veteran member of the Green Lantern Corps approaching retirement, and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, a new recruit Jordan trains. The two investigate a murder in Nebraska that leads to far wider mysteries. Nathan Fillion also appears as Guy Gardner, a character he debuted in James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ film earlier this year.
‘Lanterns’ is confirmed to premiere on HBO on August 16. Whether Mundy’s vision of a character-driven crime drama wrapped in cosmic mythology can satisfy both casual viewers and hardcore Green Lantern devotees remains to be seen. But if the creative pedigree behind the series is any indication, the Corps may be in far better hands than the trailer suggests.
