As someone who was looking forward the Green Lantern movie in 2011, only to be disappointed by it, I’m glad this corner of the DC Comics mythology is getting another shot at live action. Lanterns, the Green Lantern TV series set in the DC Universe, is now filming, and one of the characters whom Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart will meet is Poorna Jagannathan’s Zoe, who will be John’s love interest. Jagannathan confirmed in a recent interview that Lanterns will feature the Guardians of the Universe, which is a big enough deal on its own. However, I’m way more excited about the Green Lantern villains she may have teased in her comment.
While plugging her new series Deli Boys, which can now be streamed with a Hulu subscription, to @mpmorales, Jagannathan spent some time talking about her upcoming DC TV show, which will follow Creature Commandos Season 1 and Peacemaker Season 2 on the DC Universe’s small screen front. Here’s what she had to say:
I couldn’t love the writing for Green Lantern more… Like Deli Boys, Green Lantern series is a superbly written script, and my character is superbly drawn out. I have to do very little work. I just have to get out of the way of the script to make Green Lanterns work. The way I describe every character, it’s all the characters you love and you know. The Lanterns, the Guardians and the Sinestros, all that world is still intact, and yet everyone is presented as hero and villain at the same time, and that’s what makes the writing so complex, and so layered and so beautiful.
As someone who was concerned just a few months ago about how Lanterns seemed to be shying away from its cosmic roots, I’m glad to hear the Guardians of the Universe will appear in the series. These are the beings who created and lead the Green Lantern Corps from their homeworld of Oa. Their presence in Lanterns indicates that either Hal and John will be visiting Oa at some point in the series, or they’ll communicate with these small-statured, yet powerful blue-skinned aliens using their emerald rings of willpower.
More importantly though, did you notice how Poorna Jagannathan said Sinestros? We already know that Ulrich Thomsen will play Sinestro in Lanterns, so maybe she just mistakenly pluralized his name. More likely though, and what I certainly hope is happening, is that we’re getting the Sinestro Corps. After decades of harnessing the yellow energy of fear on his own in the comics, Sinestro formed his own group of Yellow Lanterns in the mid-2000s.
If we are getting some of Sinestro’s lackeys in Lanterns, then I can’t wait for Hal Jordan and John Stewart to throw down with their yellow-garbed adversaries. I’m also wondering now more than ever just how the Sinestro Corps is connected to the murder that the starring Green Lanterns are investigating in the American heartland? Did they commit it, or is the true perpetrator such a grave threat that the Yellow Lanterns are being threatened, too?
It’ll be a while until those answers are provided, as Lanterns isn’t expected to start airing on HBO until early 2026. Still, with the Guardians of the Universe confirmed to appear and things looking good for the Sinestro Corps too, my excitement for this DCU series continues to rise.
