Nathan Fillion's New 8-Part HBO Detective Series Is Already One Of Its Best — Gaming

After 1 Episode, Lanterns Is Already One Of HBO's Best Shows Of The Year

Lanterns has debuted on HBO and HBO Max, and after a single episode, it is already safe to say that we are in front of one of HBO's best shows of 2026. There is a lot riding on Lanterns. This is the first project fully dedicated to the Green Lantern corner of DC Comics since Ryan Reynolds' solo movie flopped in 2011.

Thankfully, Lanterns could not be further from that film. In terms of VFX, performances, tone, story, dialogue, atmosphere, cinematography, and more, the new HBO series is a major step up from the Green Lanterns' last live-action letdown. Lanterns has quickly shown itself as the perfect follow-up for Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner appearances in James Gunn's DC Universe.

While Fillion's Green Lantern is more attuned to the comics' lighter tone, offering plenty of comedic moments, Lanterns dials up the intensity and darkness to deliver a gritty, grounded, and mature superhero experience that expertly mixes larger-than-life concepts with mundane detective stories. Lanterns episode 1 debuted on HBO and HBO Max last Sunday, August 16, with new episodes airing weekly.

Sector 2814 · Ring Active How Well Do You Know Lanterns? “In brightest day, in blackest night...”

💍The RingPowered by will

🔦The Corps3,600 sectors

🌌OaThe Guardians

👮Earth BeatSector 2814

⚠Yellow
PerilThe fear entity

Lanterns is one of the tentpole TV series launching James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe. On which streaming platform does it air?

✓ Correct! HBO Max — Warner Bros. Discovery’s flagship streamer and the natural home for DCU prestige TV alongside Peacemaker and The Penguin. Lanterns is positioned as the DCU’s high-end serialised drama counterpart to Gunn’s theatrical Superman relaunch, sharing canon with the films. Disney+ runs Marvel; Netflix and Apple are rival streamers.

✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is HBO Max. Netflix has had various superhero shows but not DCU. Disney+ is Marvel’s home. Apple TV+ doesn’t house DC. HBO Max is Warner Bros. Discovery’s streamer and the TV home of the Gunn/Safran DCU — Lanterns joins Peacemaker and upcoming DCU series there.

Unlike most Green Lantern adaptations, Lanterns pairs two Earth-based ring-bearers in a buddy-cop framework — a weathered veteran and a newer recruit partnered together on Sector 2814 duty. Which two Lanterns lead the show?

✓ Correct! Hal Jordan and John Stewart — two of the most beloved Earth-assigned Lanterns — are paired as the show’s central duo. Hal is the hot-shot test-pilot veteran, John the disciplined ex-Marine architect with a sharper sense of justice. The pairing draws heavily from the Geoff Johns comics era and lets the show explore two very different philosophies of what a Green Lantern should be.

✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Guy Gardner (played by Nathan Fillion) is a separate DCU character who appears in the 2025 Superman film. Kyle Rayner is a beloved Lantern but not part of this show. The Lanterns duo is the Hal/John pairing — a pointedly contrasting veteran and recruit on Sector 2814 duty together.

The role of Hal Jordan — the weathered, test-pilot-turned-space-cop original Earth Lantern — went to a veteran actor best known as Coach Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights and for leading Bloodline. Who plays Hal?

✓ Correct! Kyle Chandler — Emmy winner for Friday Night Lights, star of Bloodline, and part of the Monsterverse (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) — plays an older, weathered Hal Jordan. James Gunn wanted a seasoned, grounded presence rather than a rookie. Ryan Reynolds played Hal in 2011’s widely-mocked Green Lantern film (a different continuity); Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner in the 2025 Superman film.

✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Kyle Chandler. Ryan Reynolds’ Hal was the 2011 film (a separate, mostly-disowned continuity). Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner in the 2025 Superman film — not Hal. Chris Pine isn’t in the DCU. Chandler’s weathered, Friday-Night-Lights gravitas is exactly the mature Hal energy Gunn wanted for the show.

John Stewart — ex-Marine sniper, architect, and one of DC’s most iconic Black heroes — is played by a British actor who broke out in Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad and Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge. Who is he?

✓ Correct! Aaron Pierre — the British actor who earned raves as Caesar in The Underground Railroad (2021) and carried Netflix’s Rebel Ridge (2024) with a performance frequently compared to early Denzel Washington. Gunn called his casting “a no-brainer.” Winston Duke, Sterling K. Brown and John Boyega are all great actors but not in the role.

✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Aaron Pierre. Winston Duke is M’Baku in the Marvel universe. Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us, American Fiction) is Marvel-adjacent too. John Boyega famously played Finn in Star Wars. Pierre’s Rebel Ridge performance — playing a disciplined ex-Marine — is essentially his audition for John Stewart, and Gunn’s team cast him off it.

James Gunn has repeatedly pitched Lanterns as a grounded, small-town murder-mystery thriller — where the space-cop rings are secondary to a detective case on Earth. Which acclaimed HBO series is his go-to tonal comparison?

✓ Correct! Gunn has explicitly called Lanterns his “True Detective in the DCU” — a slow-burn, atmospheric, character-driven case with superhero elements layered over a grounded murder mystery. Showrunner Chris Mundy actually did True Detective: Night Country duties, bringing that DNA directly. Watchmen (Damon Lindelof) was also cited, and Lindelof has consulting writer credits, but True Detective is the primary comp.

✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is True Detective. Gunn has named it as the explicit tonal blueprint — a slow-burn, character-driven murder mystery with superhero elements layered over it. Chris Mundy, the show’s runner, worked on True Detective: Night Country, bringing the DNA directly. Watchmen was a secondary comp (Damon Lindelof consults), but True Detective is the primary pitch.

When James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as DC Studios co-CEOs in 2022, they announced a rebooted slate of interconnected films and TV shows — with Lanterns among the launch titles. What is this first DCU phase officially called?

✓ Correct! Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters — announced in January 2023 as the Gunn/Safran DCU’s opening slate. It includes Superman (2025), The Authority, Supergirl, The Brave and the Bold, Paradise Lost, Waller, Creature Commandos, and of course Lanterns. Crisis on Infinite Earths is a comics event; Flashpoint and Dark Knights are other DC storylines, not the chapter branding.

✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters. Crisis on Infinite Earths is a famous DC comics crossover event (and Arrowverse crossover) but not a DCU chapter label. Flashpoint was referenced in The Flash (2023) from the now-defunct DCEU. The Gunn/Safran era officially named its launch phase Gods and Monsters — Superman 2025, Lanterns, and related titles.

Green Lanterns serve the Guardians of the Universe, an ancient race who created the Corps’ 3,600-sector peacekeeping force and charge the Lantern rings from a central Power Battery on their home planet. What is the Guardians’ homeworld called?

✓ Correct! Oa — the small blue-skinned Guardians’ home at the centre of the universe. It houses the Central Power Battery from which all Green Lantern rings draw their energy, and serves as the Corps’ academy and operational base. Krypton is Superman’s destroyed homeworld; Themyscira is Wonder Woman’s hidden Amazon island; Apokolips is Darkseid’s hellscape.

✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Oa. Krypton is Superman’s homeworld. Themyscira is Paradise Island where Wonder Woman was raised. Apokolips is Darkseid’s grim world in the Fourth World mythos. Oa is specifically the Guardians of the Universe’s planet — home to the Central Power Battery that fuels every Green Lantern ring in all 3,600 sectors.

Every Green Lantern recites the same oath when charging their ring — a four-line rhyming incantation that’s become one of the most famous pieces of verse in comic-book history. How does it famously begin?

✓ Correct! “In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil’s might / Beware my power — Green Lantern’s light!” The oath dates back to 1940’s All-American Comics #16, was refined through the Silver Age, and is considered one of DC’s most sacred bits of verse. Every canonical adaptation includes some version of it.

✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is “In brightest day, in blackest night...” The full oath: “No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil’s might / Beware my power — Green Lantern’s light!” It’s been canon since 1940 and remains one of comics’ most instantly recognisable pieces of verse — recited in every major Green Lantern adaptation.

Ring Depowered · Report to Oa Your Corps Rank

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Honor Guard veteran — or still in Corps training?

Based on Lanterns' cast, led by Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, its creators — Chris Mundy (Ozark), Damon Lindelof (Watchmen), and Tom King (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) — and the Green Lanterns lore from the comics, I set high expectations for it. Thankfully, Lanterns episode 1 surpassed all of those, making it one of HBO's best TV shows of 2026 already.

Why HBO Max's Lanterns Has Become One Of Its Best Series

At the time of writing, Lanterns has become the most-watched TV show on HBO Max worldwide, leaving the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon behind, via FlixPatrol. This comes as the Green Lantern series has been met with overwhelming praise. Lanterns holds a near-perfect 95% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and a strong 82% audience score. In ScreenRant's Lanterns review, I gave the new HBO sci-fi detective series a 9 out of 10 score. Lanterns episode 1 successfully packs 40 years of Green Lantern lore into a single hour, setting up Hal as a Green Lantern legend and John as his replacement.

The core dynamic between those characters is the main reason for Lanterns' global success. Chandler's Hal Jordan is the sarcastic, confident, and charming know-it-all veteran hero, and his personality clashes with the measured, colder, more analytical John Stewart. Seeing those two bounce off one another was the highlight of episode 1. That said, Lanterns' debut perfectly set up two separate murder investigations that seem equally mysterious, and a mature tone that makes it stand apart from other live-action superhero offerings. Finally, Lanterns truly feels like HBO's hit detective shows mixed with superheroes in all the best ways, and this world begs to be explored.

Lanterns Is The Latest On A Streak Of Hit DC Shows On HBO Max

Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner wearing his Green Lantern suit in HBO's Lanterns

While Lanterns might be the talk of the town right now, DC has been on a row when it comes to the studio's TV shows on HBO and HBO Max. The animated My Adventures with Superman season 3 ranked weekly on HBO Max's charts as new episodes were released in the lead-up to Lanterns. Before that, Gunn's DCU and Matt Reeves' The Batman Epic Crime Saga found success on HBO and HBO Max worldwide through John Cena's Peacemaker season 2 and Creature Commandos, in the DCU's case, and Colin Farrell's The Penguin, in The Batman universe.

Looking at those, it becomes even easier to see why Lanterns is so interesting. Tonally, the new Green Lantern series is much more in line with The Penguin, the HBO show where no powers were present, only hard-hitting drama. Still, Lanterns lives in Gunn's DCU, serving as proof of how each project in the franchise will get the exact genre and rating the creative team believes is the best way to tell their story the way it should be told.

Lanterns feels like a series that knows what it stands for and where it is going, and by showing up with so much determination in episode 1, I can't help but be entranced by where the HBO series will go.