'Lanterns' Co-Stars on Hal and John's Tense Partnership
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- HBO's "Lanterns" sets its central conflict in rural Nebraska, where Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) investigate an alien presence in a deliberate "low-fi" departure from the franchise's typical sci-fi lean
- The show's core tension mirrors a decades-old comic dynamic — Hal has been told John is only his backup, while John has been told he will replace Hal — echoing the 1970s comic where John Stewart was introduced as Hal's replacement
- Kyle Chandler entered the role with little Green Lantern knowledge and only recently attended his first Comic-Con, and plays Hal as arrogant but likable — with co-star Kelly Macdonald comparing the work to Shakespeare
- Aaron Pierre first encountered DC comics as a child at a London W.H. Smith, and cited Sidney Poitier — whose likeness inspired John Stewart's original 1970s comic design — and James Earl Jones as personal heroes
- Pierre described his approach to John Stewart as "revision" — continuously refining the character until the final scene of the season, citing a teacher's advice to "strive for perfection, knowing that that's unobtainable"
- Filming was grueling: 85% of the show was shot on location, including desert shoots in summer, though Pierre called the cast "a family and a unit" and Chandler called the experience "lightning in a bottle"
Why it matters: For HBO and DC Studios, "Lanterns" is a deliberate bet that a character-driven, Shakespearean-flawed take on the Green Lantern mythos — grounded in rural Nebraska rather than cosmic spectacle — can carry the franchise after the much-maligned 2011 film. The Chandler-Pierre pairing is being sold as the engine: the actors' evident off-screen chemistry is positioned to make a decades-old comic-book rivalry feel like a genuine human clash.
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