Why ‘Lanterns’ Breakout Antaan Actor Paul Ben-Victor Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight for Decades

Viewers tuning into HBO’s ‘Lanterns’ have started asking the same question about one of the show’s newest faces. The actor playing the mysterious alien Antaan carries an unmistakable presence that many can’t quite place, even though his face has shown up across decades of prestige television.

That actor is Paul Ben-Victor, a veteran character actor known for playing authority figures in film and on television. His work on ‘Lanterns’ is only the latest chapter in a career built almost entirely on the kind of roles audiences remember without always recalling the name attached to them.

Antaan’s Role in ‘Lanterns’ Explained

Ben-Victor made his debut as Antaan in the second episode of ‘Lanterns’ on HBO Max, following the character’s introduction in promotional stills released ahead of the episode. Episode 2, directed by James Hawes and written by Vanessa Baden Kelly and Chris Mundy, sees John Stewart, played by Aaron Pierre, abducted by Antaan. Antaan soon reveals himself to be an alien and the leader of a group of human disguised extraterrestrials, some of whom were killed on the Rushville football field earlier in the season.

Antaan tasks John Stewart with finding a hidden Manhunter, believing a survivor of that species is concealed somewhere in Rushville, Nebraska, and could pose a threat to humanity. Because Antaan and his people cannot enter the town without being detected, largely due to the efforts of William Macon and his unidentified benefactor, Antaan enlists John to track down the Manhunter and gives him a narrow window to do it. Antaan is introduced as a survivor of a species that was targeted for genocide by the Manhunters, ancient robotic beings originally created by the Guardians of the Universe as an early Green Lantern police force before turning violent and being replaced by the Corps.

The character is described as devoted to exposing the truth and driven by an unrelenting need to deliver justice on his own terms, a description that has led some fans to draw comparisons to the comics villain Atrocitus. Whether that connection becomes explicit remains one of the show’s more closely watched threads as new episodes continue to air.

Where ‘Lanterns’ Antaan Actor Paul Ben-Victor Has Appeared Before

Long before ‘Lanterns’, Ben-Victor was best known for playing the Greek mobster Spiros Vondas Vondopoulos on the HBO drama ‘The Wire’. On that series, Ben-Victor played a high ranking member of The Greek’s criminal organization, introduced in Season 2 as the right hand man and key intermediary in the group’s drug and smuggling operations. The character is perhaps best remembered for a Season 2 conversation with Frank Sobotka, in which Vondas responds to Sobotka’s attempt to pull away from the organization with a pointed steel mill analogy.

That was far from Ben-Victor’s only recognizable role. He also played Alan Gray on ‘Entourage’ from 2005 to 2008 and appeared in the 1991 film ‘Body Parts’. His screen career began in 1987 with the television film ‘Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife’, followed that same year by an appearance on ‘Cagney & Lacey’.

Ben-Victor went on to appear in ‘True Romance’ in 1993 and starred alongside Phil Hartman in ‘Houseguest’ and Howie Long in ‘Firestorm’ in 1995. In 2000, he began the most consistent role of his career on the Sci-Fi Channel series ‘The Invisible Man’, playing Robert Hobbes for 45 episodes through 2002, before joining ‘The Wire’ and later appearing in ‘Daredevil’. He then took a starring role as Stan McQueen on ‘In Plain Sight’, appearing in 37 episodes between 2008 and 2010.

Paul Ben-Victor’s Extensive Career Playing Cops and Criminals

On ‘In Plain Sight’, Ben-Victor’s character Stan McQueen served as chief inspector for the WITSEC southwest region and boss to the show’s two lead marshals. The character was written as a flexible boss who backed his team when they hit trouble, while sticking closely to official WITSEC doctrine and maintaining professional distance in the office.

Beyond his marquee roles, Ben-Victor has been featured on numerous television crime dramas including ‘FBI’, ‘Monk’ and ‘CSI’, and had a recurring role as a con man named Steve Richards across three episodes of ‘NYPD Blue’ between 1994 and 1997. He reprised that same character on a 1998 episode of the short lived police drama ‘Brooklyn South’.

More recently, Ben-Victor has been recognized for his roles in ‘Entourage’, ‘Vinyl’ alongside Ray Romano, and ‘The Wire’. He also appeared in ‘Feast of the Seven Fishes’ opposite Joe Pantoliano and in ‘The Irishman’ alongside Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Ray Romano, an experience he has described as one he will never forget.

The Cast Bringing ‘Lanterns’ to HBO

‘Lanterns’ is produced by HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios, with the pilot episode co-written by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King, who serve as co-creators. Mundy serves as showrunner, and the first two episodes were directed by James Hawes, with Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel and Alik Sakharov also directing episodes throughout the season.

The series stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson and Jasmine Cephas Jones. It follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.

Ulrich Thomsen plays Thaal Sinestro, a rogue former member of the Green Lantern Corps who once served as Hal Jordan’s mentor before turning against the Guardians of the Universe. Laura Linney plays one of the Guardians of the Universe, powerful beings who live on the planet Oa and oversee the Green Lantern Corps, and who can appear in human form despite their blue skinned true appearance. With that ensemble in place, Antaan’s arrival adds another layer to a mystery that continues to expand well beyond Rushville.

For a show built on hidden identities and characters who aren’t quite who they first appear to be, it feels fitting that the actor behind one of its most intriguing new figures has spent decades quietly appearing in some of television’s most acclaimed dramas. What do you make of Antaan’s true motives, and do you think ‘Lanterns’ is setting up its own version of Atrocitus?