Lanterns, the first live action television series built on James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Universe, premiered on HBO and HBO Max on August 16, 2026, and the early verdict from critics lands firmly on the positive side: 95 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes from 77 reviews, with a 7.55 out of 10 average, and a generally favorable 71 out of 100 on Metacritic from 36 critics.
The series, the first TV show set inside Gunn’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters, opens not with a cosmic battle but with a body in a cornfield. Kyle Chandler plays Hal Jordan, the veteran Lantern who has spent decades chasing green light across the galaxy. Aaron Pierre plays John Stewart, the new recruit who has just been handed a ring of his own. The pair land in Rushville, Nebraska to investigate what looks like a small town murder and what Hal insists is something much older than that. The pilot, directed by James Hawes and written by showrunner Chris Mundy alongside Damon Lindelof and Tom King, runs 57 minutes and trades the usual superhero scale for a slow burning detective procedural.
The cast around Chandler and Pierre is built for that procedural register. Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, and Nathan Fillion round out the principal roles (per IMDb). Fillion, a DC veteran who voiced Green Lantern in animated projects for years, brings a sly energy to whatever corner of the Corps he has been slotted into. Stephanie Economou, whose recent work includes the Andor score, composed the music. The official trailer, released by HBO Max in March 2026, leans hard on the small town setting and on the chemistry between the two leads, and the chemistry reads the same way critics have been describing it for the last 48 hours.
Rotten Tomatoes’ critics consensus lands the thesis in a single line. “Lanterns lights the way to a controlled and fantastical escape, in which Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre bring audiences into their world of wonder through fearless performances, grounded writing, and charismatic chemistry.” Daniel Fienberg, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, singled out the “prickly chemistry” between Pierre and Chandler and praised the supporting cast, while flagging that some of the comic book scaffolding can feel underwhelming and that certain episodes settle for atmosphere over propulsion. The split is the usual one for a first episode that wants to build a town before it breaks anything: the performances and the writing land, the world building takes its time.
On X the read has been warmer than the most cautious critic reviews. The week of the drop, fan accounts went straight to the central premise. One, @joshuavan1991, name checked Green Lantern historian and artist Ethan Van Sciver and pointed out that Van Sciver has publicly loved the show, an endorsement that carries weight with the longtime comics crowd. Another, @jkristineh, walked through what the pilot calls Hal’s broken vow. The phrasing matters to long time readers: the show treats Hal as having revealed himself as Earth’s “First” Green Lantern, breaking a vow of secrecy rather than the Corps’ central oath, which gives John Stewart something concrete to react to in the pilot’s quieter scenes.
Lanterns is built to run eight episodes, releasing weekly on HBO and HBO Max through October 4, 2026. The pilot’s midwestern setting is not just cosmetic. It sets the show up as a story about two very different kinds of authority: Hal’s, earned across decades and galaxies, and John’s, which has to be built fresh in a place that has never seen a ring before. Chandler, who won an Emmy for Friday Night Lights and spent the last decade drifting between indie dramas and franchise work, plays Hal as a man whose certainty has cost him something. Pierre, who broke out with Rebel Ridge in 2024, gives John the kind of still, watchful center that the role needs.
For BuzzWire’s read: the show is doing what a smart first episode of a detective show has to do. It introduces a case that pays off across the season. It gives two leads a reason to argue in every scene. It earns the eight hours it is asking the audience to commit to. The superhero scale is on the shelf for now. What is on screen instead is a green glow in a cornfield, a body nobody can explain, and two men with rings trying to decide whether to trust each other. If Lanterns holds that tone through the season, the 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes is going to look like the floor, not the ceiling.
