There are two emerging schools of thoughts around HBO’s upcoming adaptation of the Green Lantern mythology on premium cable: there are those who love that it looks like a real HBO drama—most specifically True Detective with maybe a sprinkling of Watchmen (fitting since one of the series’ creators is Damon Lindelof)—and those who recoil at such a low-fi approach to one of the DC Universe’s spaciest and most operatic of space operas.
That divide might be changing, though, after a groovy three-minute sizzle reel that just dropped on the San Diego Comic-Con faithful in Hall H. Accompanied by cast and creator appearances, the below trailer offers a cornucopia of nerdy easter eggs and tantalizing details about the upcoming Lanterns, not least of which includes how deep we’re going on the origins of good and evil in the DC Universe and the founding of the Green Lantern Corps more than three billion (with a b!) years ago.
For those curious about what is going on in the small desolate town where a seemingly pedestrian murder investigation has caught the attention of Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and his young new partner John Stewart (Rebel Ridge breakout Aaron Pierre), the new trailer confirms that the murderous conspiracy goes all the way to the top… including with the fan favorite villain Sinestro (played here by Ulrich Thomsen).
If you have only have vague memories of Mark Strong hamming it up as Sinestro in the not-great-Bob Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds 15 years ago, Sinestro is more than just a condescending boss to Hal Jordan. He is, in fact, one of the greatest Green Lanterns to ever wield the little green ring. He trained Hal much like Hal is now training John, sure, but Sinestro also was the golden boy of the Corps on their HQ planet of Oa. There the Corps, under the guidance of the Guardians of the Universe, protect countless species from the threat of fear and evil itself. That is until Sinestro tried to institute a fascist takeover of his home planet of Korugar, leading to the Corps stripping him of his ring, his title, and his freedom.
None of this is a spoiler, by the by, since the trailer confirms that Sinestro is already imprisoned on Oa, which we will be apparently visiting in the series where Sinestro seems to be offering Hannibal Lecter-like expertise to Hal and John as their investigation leads to outer space fun-time adventures. We imagine Sinestro might not stay solely in that role, however, given his comics pedigree and destiny. But he’s far from the only comic book reveal teased in a trailer that also includes the expected cameo of Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, the other, other Earth Green Lantern seen in James Gunn’s Superman last year, as well as the shocking reveal that we will be meeting Manhunters in Lanterns’ first season.
Now if you watched every episode of Justice League Unlimited, you might think that you know who the Manhunters are: cozy friendly aliens who have a Martian among their ranks helping out Superman and Batman on the side. Yeah… that’s not these guys!
The Manhunters associated with the Green Lanterns actually performed the duty of Green Lanterns billions of years ago before the Green Lanterns were a thing. So, yep, this is about to get real nerdy!
In the time before time itself, there were the Maltusians, undying scientists who hailed from the planet Maltus. These little blue guys lived to study and observe the space and comos around them. Unfortunately this one bloke among their ranks named Krona makes a machine that allows himself to witness the birth of Creation itself in the exact, biblical-coded conception the term “creation” conjures to mind. By essentially witnessing the hand of God at work, the Maltusians commit an Adam and Eve-like mortal sin and accidentally invite the entity of evil—ultimately characterized by the color yellow (just go with it)—into Creation. To atone for their sins, the Maltusians become the Guardians of the Universe and create robots to help them in their task: they name these robots the Manhunters. But guess what… giving omnipotent power to artificial beings turns out to be a not great idea.
Hence the creation of the Green Lantern Corps, sentient beings with the power of imagination (and empathy and judgment), who use these essentially magic rings to make good on the Guardians’ desire to protect the universe from evil.
This is all very 1950s, pulp magazine-coded sci-fi shenanigans, but you can take such flights of fancy very seriously. Just ask Tom King, one of the most influential comic book writers at DC in the last decade who is a co-creator on the series, which he co-wrote the pilot of alongside fellow creators Lindelof and Chris Mundy So we’re headed to a DC Universe that is about to get infinitely weirder, and hopefully more quality-controlled given the HBO pedigree of it all. If you’d like to know more about what to expect from Lanterns, check out our deep dive into the series with Murphy here or pick it up in the latest issue of Den of Geek Magazine here!
Lanterns premieres Aug. 16 on HBO.
