By JUDY SLOANE

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD-Based on the DC comics’ Green Lantern, writers Chris Mundy (True Detective: Night Country,) Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Tom King (The Vision, Marvel comics, Batman, DC comics) have created a new take on the franchise with HBO/Max’s Lanterns.

The series spotlight intergalactic peacekeepers Hal Jordon (Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights) legendary member of the Green Lantern Corps, and the newly recruited John Stewart (Aaron Pierre, Genius: MLK/X,) who both wear rings that give them supernatural powers. They are dispatched to Rushville, Nebraska, to investigate a murder, which they believe could be an extraterrestrial event.

Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre and Damon Lindelof joined forces to talk more about their new drama which premieres on HBO on August 16, 2026, at 9/8c.

Q: The dynamic between Hal and John really roots the story, and we can see the humor and charm between them but also feel this tension. What was most important to establish right away about how your character sees himself and how he sees the other person?

Kyle Chandler: The first thing that we did was to get to know each other. Once Aaron and I got to work together, it was very quick.  It’s all in the writing. It’s not too hard to figure out that Hal has a competitor here and he doesn’t want to admit it, but he’s getting a little older. Things started falling in place, because of a lot of the work we all did together and that freedom of just enjoying what we’re doing.

Aaron Pierre: I would say that the first thing that we wanted to establish was a safety within our partnership and dynamic. Once safety is established, then you feel an ease and you feel at liberty to explore, try things. As Kyle says, the magic was already on the page, we were always going to get from point A to point B, but how we got there, nobody knew. It’s just the nature of Kyle and me. We like to improvise. We like to try things, never to derail the story, but we like to surprise each other. And they permitted us freedom and liberty to do that. And that’s where some of the most beautiful moments are derived from that feeling of safety and freedom.

Q: Damon, your shows over the years are indelible to so many people because of the way that you use the genre lens to examine aspects of humanity. Which aspect of how we function, not just as heroes but as human beings, drew you to wanting to explore these characters and do this adaptation?

Damon Lindelof: I think that anytime you’re working on something that isn’t original, something that you’re inheriting, you either lean in or you or you lean out. I had heard that Tom King had ideated this Green Lantern’s idea that was being called Lanterns, that was described as a true detective story set on Earth. Immediately I was like, oh, they’re space cops; that sounds cool. But more importantly, it’s going to be about the two of them.

Why do we keep telling stories about superheroes? And the answer is this idea of they were human beings first before they even put on the rings.

Q: We have a preconceived notion about superheroes, that they’re youthful, and now we’re starting to see them age up a little bit. Kyle, could talk about presenting somebody in their 50s who’s a superhero and how that changes the dynamic?

Kyle Chandler: First of all, I take umbrage to your question!

Damon Lindelof: Yeah. We take umbrage on your behalf.

Kyle Chandler It’s a great opportunity. As far as I’m concerned, when got this, I was like, oh wow, really? I’m going to be a superhero? Me? But it was a great advantage, because there are things with your older years that come to you that in a project like this, you get to use them. There’s a lot of humor in getting older and there’s a lot of humor in this show. In a way too it’s really important to show older people’s lives [in] this young culture that we’ve got going on – there’s a little bit of goodness and some wisdom.

Q: Aaron, science fiction has always helped us imagine a better future. For many Black fans, John Stewart has been part of that future for decades. What do you hope his story says to longtime fans, but also to those meeting him for the first time?

Aaron Pierre: One of my favorite things about John Stewart and how he’s detailed, written and shared with audiences is the truth and the honesty that is present within him, and how he is so immensely complex.

I think he is somebody who allows us to feel seen, heard, understood, comprehended, respected. It’s an immense privilege and joy to have been given the opportunity to portray him in the first live-action version. The enormity of that gift is not lost on me. I’m filled with gratitude.

Q: Damon, do you know exactly where you want to end the series without stretching the stories?

Damon Lindelof: Yeah, I can speak from personal experience, in terms of what it was like on something like Lost, where we had to aggressively fight for an end date as early as when the show premiered. For a show that had a mystery engine, the audience was saying when are you going to tell us what the fuck is going on here? And we’re like, we really want to, but once we start answering mysteries the show was coming down the hill, it’s closer to the end.

[As Chris Mundy said,] We’re going to do a mystery, and more importantly, we’re going to have a relationship story between these two guys that feels resolved at the end of the story that we’re telling, but we want the audience to be really hungry for more when it ends. And that felt like such a cool way to thread the needle, and I think to  Chris’ credit and the credit of everyone here, we’ve accomplished that.