Back in June, we brought you news that HBO's long-gestating Green Lantern series had finally gotten, well, the green light. Nabbing itself an eight episode straight-to-series order, Lanterns — hailing from the creative trio of showrunner Chris Mundy (Ozark) and co-writers Damon Lindelof (Watchmen) and comic book legend Tom King — is set to follow two of DC Comics' Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart, in a True Detective style mystery series. And now it looks like one of the show's mysteries — who will play Hal Jordan? — looks to have been solved. According to Deadline, Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler is in talks to take on the role Ryan Reynolds made (in)famous in 2011's ill-fated Green Lantern.
Set to be one of the first major series to come out of James Gunn and Peter Safran's new-look DCU, per Deadline's reporting, Lanterns will revolve around legendary Lantern Jordan (Chandler) and newbie to the Corps Stewart, who currently has no actor attached as of yet. Together, the duo are reportedly "two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland." Who's been murdered and why remains, well, a mystery for now, but suffice it to say that the new series looks set to mark a radical departure from Reynolds' big-kid-with-a-power-ring flop of 13 years ago.
It's been a long road to Lanterns already, with a series based on DC's iconic super powered ring bearers having first been set at HBO with Seth Grahame-Smith and Greg Berlanti attached back in 2020. Then, in 2021, Finn Wittrock and Jeremy Irvine even came aboard as Lanterns Guy Gardner and Alan Scott, who would've found themselves in a fully fledged space opera of a show. But now, at long last, it looks like the Green Lantern Corps are about to get their second chance, with a hell of a team shaping up to make it happen. So until we hear more on Chandler's Hal Jordan casting, or indeed who will be stepping into John Stewart's boots (or slipping on his ring), all that's left to say is the old Green Lantern motto. All together now... In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might beware [potentially Kyle Chandler's] power, Green Lantern's light!