• HBO’s Lanterns drops a new trailer that finally delivers the ring-powered superhero action fans were asking for
• Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre star as Hal Jordan and John Stewart in the buddy-cop DC mystery series
• Laura Linney appears in a mysterious, seemingly authoritative role — her character’s identity is still under wraps
• Nathan Fillion reprises his Superman role as Guy Gardner, and Ulrich Thomsen plays villain Sinestro
• Lanterns premieres August 16 on HBO Max

HBO has heard the fans — and this new Lanterns trailer is the answer. After a first teaser that leaned so hard into gritty crime drama that some viewers forgot they were watching a superhero show, the second official trailer for the upcoming DC Studios series finally goes green. Fully, unmistakably, gloriously green.

The trailer puts Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart front and center in their now-familiar push-pull dynamic — the grizzled Lantern veteran who didn’t exactly volunteer to babysit a recruit, and the fiercely ambitious newcomer who’s pretty sure he can do this whole thing better anyway. But where the first look kept the ring mostly holstered, this one lets it rip. We see Jordan conjure a massive green energy shield to block what appears to be a laser beam fired down from space. We see him manufacture a glowing green dollar bill to feed a jukebox — a move Stewart immediately calls him out for. The ring is real, the powers are real, and yes, this is absolutely a superhero show.

The trailer also takes us briefly off-planet, with a shot of what is decidedly not Earth and a glimpse of Jordan in the classic Green Lantern uniform — Corps logo visible on the chest, even if the full costume reveal is still being held back. It’s a deliberate step toward answering the loudest criticism of early marketing: that Lanterns looked more like a Midwest crime procedural than anything from the pages of DC Comics.

Fear Is the Theme — and That Points Somewhere Very Specific

Running through the entire trailer is a single repeated question: “Are you afraid?” It echoes from scene to scene, asked with varying degrees of menace and weight, and it’s not subtle. An in-universe TV clip shows Jordan being asked how he was chosen to be a Green Lantern. His answer: “It’s only one question: Are you afraid?”

For anyone familiar with Green Lantern mythology, that’s a neon sign pointing straight at one character — Sinestro, the Master of Fear, a onetime Green Lantern who went on to form the Sinestro Corps, an interstellar army that weaponizes fear rather than willpower. We already know Ulrich Thomsen (Banshee) is playing the villain. The trailer also teases a flash of red energy beams — which could hint at the Red Lantern Corps, a rival faction powered by rage — though that’s still an open question heading into August.

The origins of both heroes also get some texture here. Jordan, as comics fans know, was essentially chosen by accident — stumbling upon the dying alien Green Lantern Abin Sur, who passed the ring to the nearest worthy human. Stewart, by contrast, intends to earn it. “I was raised fearless, and I’ll do this better than he has ever done it before,” Pierre’s Stewart tells Laura Linney’s still-unnamed character late in the trailer. Her reply — calm, assured, carrying the weight of someone who knows exactly what she’s doing — is simply: “Then go and get it, John Stewart.”

Linney’s role is one of the trailer’s genuine mysteries. She’s clearly someone with authority and significance in Stewart’s life, but the show is keeping the specifics locked down tight.

Nathan Fillion Is Back, and the Cast Is Stacked

One confirmed presence: Nathan Fillion gets a quick but memorable moment as Guy Gardner, the arrogant, irritable third Green Lantern who made his DCU debut in last year’s Superman. He also popped up in Peacemaker Season 2, and his appearance here — glimpsed outside what looks like a prison cell — suggests Gardner’s role in Lanterns will be about as welcome to Jordan and Stewart as a parking ticket.

The ensemble around Chandler and Pierre is genuinely impressive. Kelly Macdonald plays the town sheriff. Garret Dillahunt is a reactionary local named William Macon. Poorna Jagannathan plays a character described as manipulative. Nicole Ari Parker and Sherman Augustus appear as John’s parents. Jason Ritter plays the sheriff’s husband. Paul Ben-Victor plays Antaan, a fugitive alien. And Jasmine Cephas Jones and J. Alphonse Nicholson round out the cast.

The show was co-created by Chris Mundy (Ozark, True Detective), Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers, Watchmen), and Eisner Award-winning comics writer Tom King, whose Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is also the basis for this summer’s Supergirl film. Mundy serves as showrunner and co-wrote the pilot with Lindelof and King. The first two episodes were directed by James Hawes, with Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov directing additional episodes.

What the Show Is Actually About

The official logline puts it cleanly: “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.” Think True Detective with power rings — a buddy-cop murder mystery that happens to have intergalactic stakes underneath it.

What the trailers have been less forthcoming about is the full shape of the story. According to showrunner Chris Mundy, the show actually unfolds across two different time periods — one set in 2016, when Hal and John investigate an alien-related shooting in the small town of Rushville, and another set in 2026, after the events of Superman. What the 2026 storyline involves remains a closely guarded secret.

Mundy has also spoken about the deliberate creative choice to write Hal Jordan at an age that’s unusual for superhero stories. “We wrote Hal at an age that isn’t typical for superhero stories,” he said. “And doing that felt like a way to get at a fear of replacement that doesn’t normally come in these types of shows.” That tension — the legend who isn’t ready to step aside, the successor who’s already certain he’s better — is clearly the emotional engine of the whole series.

This is the first live-action Green Lantern project since the 2011 Ryan Reynolds film, which was a notable enough misfire that it kept the character out of the DC Films universe entirely for over a decade. James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU is giving the Corps another shot, and Lanterns is the foundation. Aaron Pierre is already confirmed to reprise the role of John Stewart in next summer’s Man of Tomorrow, which teams Superman and Lex Luthor against the alien threat of Brainiac — so whatever happens in Rushville this August, John Stewart’s story is just getting started.

Lanterns premieres August 16 on HBO Max.

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• Laura Linney has officially joined the cast of HBO’s Lanterns, premiering August 16.
• Her role is being kept under wraps, but a teaser scene with Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart has fans theorizing she’s Carol Ferris.
• The series stars Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre as Hal Jordan and John Stewart, two Green Lanterns investigating a murder in the American heartland.
• Showrunner Chris Mundy revealed the show will run across two timelines — 2016 and 2026 — with Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner appearing multiple times.
• Linney’s casting was first reported in 2025 but only officially confirmed with Monday’s teaser drop.

Laura Linney is heading to the DC universe — and nobody’s saying who she’s playing. The acclaimed actress has officially joined the cast of HBO’s Lanterns, the highly anticipated Green Lantern series starring Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler, and a new teaser that dropped Monday gives fans just enough to start spinning theories.

The biggest one? She’s Carol Ferris.

In the teaser, Pierre’s John Stewart is mid-conversation with Linney’s character — clearly someone he trusts, someone whose opinion carries weight. “I was raised fearless, and I’ll do this better than he’s ever done it before,” John tells her. Her response is calm, assured: “Then go and get it, John Stewart.” It’s a brief exchange, but it’s loaded. And if John is looking for guidance on how to handle Hal Jordan — his mentor, his complicated predecessor — there aren’t many people in the DC mythology who know Hal better than Carol Ferris.

Created by John Broome and Gil Kane, Carol Ferris first appeared in DC Comics’ Showcase #22 and later as Star Sapphire in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #16. She’s been Hal Jordan’s on-again, off-again love interest, a skilled pilot in her own right, and — depending on the storyline — both an enemy and an ally of the Green Lantern Corps. The character has been voiced by Kari Wahlgren, Jennifer Hale, and Olivia d’Abo in animation, and was portrayed by Blake Lively opposite Ryan Reynolds in the 2011 film. If the Lanterns version of Carol is someone John turns to for perspective on Hal, that tracks perfectly with the show’s central dynamic.

DC Studios and HBO aren’t confirming anything yet. Linney’s casting was first reported back in 2025 but wasn’t officially announced until the new teaser made it impossible to ignore — her character appears prominently enough near the end of the preview that the announcement had to come out the same day.

What We Know About the Show Itself

Lanterns 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,” per the official logline. Showrunner Chris Mundy, who helmed True Detective: Night Country, co-created the series with Damon Lindelof (Watchmen) and Tom King (Supergirl). The pilot was co-written by all three.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mundy revealed that the series actually runs across two separate timelines: 2016 and 2026. The 2016 story kicks off in Rushville, Nebraska, where a shooting has Hal convinced something alien is involved — though local Sheriff Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) isn’t buying it. A second mystery, set in 2026, will gradually converge with the first over the course of the eight-episode season.

“That becomes a second mystery that we know is down the road for us. So eventually two different mysteries get worked out over the course of the show,” Mundy explained. “It was less of a whodunnit as much as like, what happened and why? We think of this as a relationship show between John and Hal, and there’s a lot to unpack over the course of the eight episodes.”

The ten-year gap between those timelines is significant — the events of DC Studios’ Superman will have taken place within it. And Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner, described by Mundy as “fabulously obnoxious,” will appear “a few different times” across the series. Other Green Lanterns from the mythology get referenced, but won’t be showing up in person this season.

One of the more intriguing threads Mundy teased involves Ulrich Thomsen’s Sinestro, who trained Hal — who is now training John. That coaching tree, and what gets passed down through it (good and bad), is a central preoccupation of the show. “What did Hal take away from Sinestro that was good or bad? It brings up a lot of interesting worries,” Mundy said, carefully leaving open whether Sinestro will function as a straightforward villain or something more complicated.

Grounded, But Still Very Green

One criticism that surfaced after the first teaser was that it wasn’t green enough — not enough of the visual spectacle fans associate with Green Lantern. Mundy addressed it directly: “We could have put out a trailer that was tremendously green. So the fact that people are talking about it just means, to me, that they’re excited about the show. We have a lot of respect for the source material, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing this show. I think when people see it, it won’t be a controversy.”

The show’s aesthetic is intentionally grounded — shot practically on location rather than on green screen stages — but Mundy was clear that the constructs will be exactly what fans expect. “It’s a Green Lantern show, so there’s green,” he said. “Green Lantern fans will not feel like we’ve somehow made a brown show of their green comic at all.”

Director James Hawes, speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, pushed back a little on the True Detective comparisons that have followed the show since its announcement. “It is, in many ways, a buddy cop structure with travel in the story time, to and fro, that is really sophisticated,” he said. “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 was equally enthusiastic about Pierre, who he said won the role in the room. “He has such a magnificent presence. He feels so forceful, so cool, so understated,” the director said. Mundy echoed that in a separate interview with Men’s Health, describing what makes Pierre’s John Stewart so compelling: “He’s big. He’s an intimidating presence just physically. But there’s a softness to him, too. There’s a thoughtfulness. You can’t teach that.”

Linney’s Impressive Track Record

Whoever Linney is playing, she brings serious weight to the role. Best known to TV audiences as Wendy Byrde across all four seasons of Netflix’s Ozark — a performance that earned her three Emmy nominations for drama actress alone — Linney has also won Emmys for Wild Iris, The Big C, and the HBO miniseries John Adams. She’s a three-time Oscar nominee for You Can Count on Me, Kinsey, and The Savages. She most recently appeared opposite Kevin Kline in the MGM+ series American Classic.

Her track record with prestige television — particularly HBO — makes the casting feel like a statement. This is not a cameo. This is a character who matters.

Lanterns premieres August 16 on HBO and Max. The full cast also includes Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Jason Ritter, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones.

“Then go and get it, John Stewart.” Whoever she’s playing, Linney already sounds like someone you don’t argue with.

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