DC Studios has confirmed that its first-ever prequel will be released this summer. With the exception of a handful of flashbacks, the new DCU has rarely shown a period before The Suicide Squad, which is generally considered the earliest point in James Gunn and Peter Safran's new comic book movieverse. However, that's about to change with HBO Max's summer superhero show, Lanterns.
Lanterns will be a solo project focusing on the Green Lantern heroes Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). An interview with showrunner Chris Mundy for Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that Lanterns will not just be an origin story for the Green Lanterns, but a prequel to the DCU in general.
The article confirms that Lanterns will span two dual timelines: one in 2016, when the series' main mystery begins, and the other in 2026, aka the present-day DCU timeline. The 2016 timeline will follow Jordan and Stewart as they investigate a shooting in the small town of Rushville, Nebraska. 2016 is also when Jordan takes Stewart under his wing and begins training the newer Green Lantern, which he's been doing for 2 months at the time of the shooting.
With Lanterns now stretched across two timelines, this makes the 2016 portion of the show an official prequel to the DCU. DC Studios projects are typically set in the same year as their release, meaning The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, and Creature Commandos all take place after the 2016 events of Lanterns.
While it's unclear how much set-up Lanterns will do for the rest of the DCU in its 2016 timeline, Mundy noted that there will be references to characters in the show who are "not the other Lanterns" and that they will be drawn from the "mythology" and "canon" of the DCU. These wider characters will be touched upon in both timelines of the show, but won't necessarily interact with those in Lanterns:
"There are a bunch of other people from the mythology, from the canon, but not the other Lanterns. We talk about them at different times, but they're not gonna interact with them in the course of this season."
Beyond the inclusions of a few flashbacks in shows like Peacemaker and the upcoming Supergirl (which reveals the death of Krypton), the DCU has never really delved into the past, but with Lanterns now set across a 10-year timeline, fans will finally get a look into what life was like before major events in the DCU timeline, like Superman.
Lanterns will begin streaming on August 16 on HBO and HBO Max. The series stars Kyle Chandler, John Stewart, Kelly Macdonald, Nathan Fillion, and Ulrich Thomsen.
What Could Lanterns Reveal About the Past DCU?
While Lanterns appears to be a very focused project on the stories of Hal Jordan and John Stewart, its dual timelines open up interesting possibilities for the historical context of the DCU.
As Superman revealed in its opening crawl, Metahumans first arrived on Earth three centuries before the events of the movie, with Superman landing on Earth three decades prior. However, Superman had only revealed himself to the world 3 years before the movie, meaning that in 2016, he wouldn't be a public figure. This opens up an interesting conversation about the status of metahumans in 2016 and whether there are many other active heroes or villains in the public eye at the time.
In 2016, it remains to be seen what public sentiment towards metahumans is like, which could impact how Hal Jordan and John Stewart conduct themselves as members of the Green Lantern Corps. It remains to be seen whether the public even knows the Green Lanterns exist.
This series will bridge the gap between 2016 and 2026, during which time Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner also becomes a Green Lantern, so the circumstances of that appointment will also seemingly be answered in Lanterns.
