James Gunn's recent comment about Lanterns has fans hopeful for the HBO series

Lanterns, which is currently filming, has completed four episodes out of eight, if one of its actors, Jason Ritter, is to be believed. Now, DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has given his stamp of approval to whatever he has seen of the series in the form of a comment on his Threads account. A fan asked Gunn if the latter had seen any episodes of Lanterns, to which Gunn responded:

"Just scenes and dailies. It's so cool."

This comment has fans hyped and hopeful about the HBO series that's more of a murder mystery rather than a Star Wars-style cosmic movie. Tonally, Lanterns has more in common with fellow iconic HBO hit True Detective rather than the space opera of the comic books. The official synopsis for the HBO series reads:

"The series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland."

This tracks with what Gunn said about Lanterns in the December 2024 interview with Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast:

"Well, I don’t want to give away all that stuff. I think grounded, just like, if Green Lanterns were real, what the f**k would they be and how would they be? I was thinking about it the other morning. The thing that keeps getting out is that it’s a terrestrial story. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, because it’s on Earth, the story takes place on Earth.’ Everybody is like, ‘We don’t want to see [Earth], they’re from outer space, they fly with rings.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, they’re on Earth for the story like most Green Lantern stories.'"

Then, he further continued:

"They’re terrestrial-bound. It’s not in outer space. We don’t have a thousand Green Lanterns or any of that stuff. It’s a grounded story that’s being told through another lens in a way that’s really — it’s an HBO series, and it’s going to be an HBO series. I’m happy with that and I love the scripts."

What does Gunn's latest comment mean for Lanterns?

Lanterns has been hyped up by its cast and crew for a while now. Gunn has been appreciative of the writing of the series for a year now, and actress Poorna Jagannathan echoed similar sentiments in a January 2025 interview with Collider. Her exact words were:

“This is the first script that I’ve read that I understand why there’s an NDA. Everything is so insane. It is the best writing that I have ever read. I don’t know anything about sci-fi, and I don’t care, actually. But this script makes sci-fi seem like my world. It makes it so accessible to me. I understand everything about this world even though I don’t understand this world. So it’s the best sci-fi script I’ve ever read.”

Apart from her, director James Hawes, who directed the first two episodes of the show, teased the tone of Lanterns while promoting his movie The Amateur in an April 2025 The Hollywood Reporter interview:

“It looks and feels rooted. You meet two guys [Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart], but there is wit and comedy to it that you would not expect in True Detective. It is, in many ways, a buddy cop structure with travel in the story time, to and fro, that is really sophisticated. So I think [the True Detective comparison] is valid. People will still go, ‘What were you talking about?’ to some extent, but I would also bring in No Country for Old Men, Fargo and things that have that Americana heart to them.”

Therefore, based on these comments, we can ascertain that the HBO series will be more realistic than the previous live-action adaptation of the Green Lantern comics.

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Lanterns doesn't have a release date yet, but Gunn confirmed an early 2026 release window for the series at the February 2025 press event.

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