‘Lanterns’ Director Says DCU Green Lantern Series Has An “Americana Heart” Like ‘True Detective’, ‘No Country For Old Men’, And ‘Fargo’
As information regarding the live-action Green Lantern begins to trickle out to the public, Lanterns series director James Hawes has teased that the upcoming TV series will bring a bit of “Americana heart” to James Gunn’s fledgling DCU.
The British-born Hawes, whose directorial credits include various episodes of Merlin, Black Mirror, and Series 1 of the Doctor Who revival era, offered this insight into the Hal Jordan/John Stewart ‘buddy cop mystery’ while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Brian Davids in promotion of his new film The Amateurs, an adaptation of the 1981 Robert Littell novel starring Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek.
Pressed by his host as to validity of the regular tonal comparisons made between Lanterns and its fellow HBO series True Detective, ostensibly due to the similarities between the overarching ‘alien’ element of the former and the occult atmosphere that runs throughout the latter, Hawes explained, “Talking tone, it looks and feels rooted.”
“You meet two guys, but there is wit and comedy to it that you would not expect in True Detective,” said the director. “It is, in many ways, a buddy cop structure with travel in the story time, to and fro, that is really sophisticated. [Ozark showrunner] Chris Mundy has done the most amazing job with the team there, and so I think [the True Detective comparison] is valid.”
“People will still go, ‘What were you talking about?’ to some extent,” he added, “but I would also bring in No Country for Old Men, Fargo and things that have that Americana heart to them. There’s a wry humor, and so there definitely is more wit and humor than there is in True Detective.”
Hawes would further speak to the series’ tone in response to a follow-up question from Davids as to whether the critical and audience acclaim heaped upon series star Aaron Pierre in response to his performance in the 2024 thriller Rebel Ridge had any bearing on his casting as John.
“I honestly think he did it totally individually in the room,” he began. “With some chemistry castings and the like, it just felt like he would inhabit the role. He has such a magnificent presence. He feels so forceful, so cool, so understated. Again, I wanted this world to be rooted, and while there’s only so far you can go with rooting characters in a show about Green Lantern, they are. This is a world where we accept that the Green Lanterns exist and aliens exist. So the rest of it is played straight and in the world as we know it.”
Interestingly, one of the main proponents of the Lanterns–True Detective comparison is none other than DC Studios co-head Peter Safran.
In unveiling the series’ production to the world in January 2023, Safran asserted, “Our next project is another television series. We call it Lanterns and it is starring two of our favorite Green Lanterns—Hal Jordan and John Stewart. It’s going to be with HBO Max, as all of our series are that we’re going to talk about today. It is more of a True Detective-type mystery with our two Lanterns. A terrestrial-based mystery—”
“—that leads into the overall story that we’re telling throughout the different movies and television shows,” finished his co-studio head James Gunn. “We find this ancient horror on Earth, and these guys are basically supercops on ‘Precinct Earth.'”
“The story is going to weave back and forth between the films and the television shows,” added Safran. “Peacemaker is a good example of how that works, and that’s what we’re going to do with this big overarching story that we’re telling.”
At current, Lanterns has yet to receive an official release date.
NEXT: James Gunn Stands By The Casting Of Kyle Chandler As Hal Jordan In ‘Lanterns’
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