Lanterns is a man buffet

Among the questions stemming from the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger is what will happen with DC Studios, which only just rebooted under Peter Safran and James Gunn last year.

They have several projects in the pipeline, including this summer’s Supergirl, October’s Clayface, about the Batman villain, as well as Gunn’s Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow and Matt Reeves’ ever more anticipated The Batman: Part 2, both of which are in various stages of development. There is also a Green Lantern series starring Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre coming to HBO/Max this August. The first trailer dropped yesterday. It doesn’t suck.

James Gunn initially set up Lanterns as a kind of superhero True Detective or Slow Horses—two shows with vastly different tones, pick a lane. The series was co-created by Damon Lindelof, who was previously successful in superhero TV with Watchmen, Tom King, and Chris Mundy. Mundy also serves as the showrunner and is a veteran of Criminal Minds, True Detective, and Ozark. The dark drama cred is legit.

But the trailer looks more Lethal Weapon to me. Maybe it’s not a full-out comedy, but it’s a buddy setup with a pair of intergenerational grumps needling each other in a mentor/mentee relationship. Kyle Chandler plays Hal Jordan—the character once played by Ryan Reynolds, to give you an idea of how far we’ve come—who is somewhat grizzled and has been an intergalactic cop known as a Lantern for a while. Aaron Pierre, meanwhile, stars as John Stewart, who is being trained by Hal as his eventual replacement.

These are the two most popular Green Lanterns, fans have waited decades to have a proper cinematic Lantern experience, and at least here, the casting is perfect. (John Stewart was previously played by David Ramsey in the “Arrowverse” on the CW.) Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are striking all the right notes as a pair of reluctant partners, and, well, Aaron Pierre just LOOKS like he should be an action star. His performances in Underground Railroad, Genius, and Rebel Ridge prove he’s got serious chops, but again, that dude just looks like a superhero.

The series also stars Kelly Macdonald as a small-town sheriff, and Nathan Fillion will reprise his role as Guy Gardner, the bowl-cut loser Lantern from Superman. I am VERY interested to see how Fillion’s goofy Guy blends into this considerably more grounded take on the Lanterns—and also what it means when Hal says he’s the only human Lantern. Is he not aware of Guy? Does this series take place before Superman? Does he just not acknowledge Guy Gardner on principle?

But the fate of the “DC Universe” is now in question. David Ellison has said he intends to leave Gunn and Safran alone in a DC fiefdom, but, well…people say that and then the merger completes and all bets are off. And with the debt burden of the new WarnerMount ParaDance BrotherSky monster corporation now estimated at upwards of $80 billion, cost cutting is going to have to come from somewhere. At least before then will get the broody man buffet of Lanterns, which truly has something for everyone on display.