DC Studios Chooses 2nd Color For the DCU Lanterns (Report)

DC's Lanterns has no shortage of controversy, but one of the loudest complaints aimed at the show may be about to get quieter. The HBO Max series, which premieres in August and stars Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, drew widespread criticism when its first trailer dropped last week. Fans immediately zeroed in on what they saw as a troubling lack of green. The trailer featured a dull, coloured suit hanging in a closet, no glowing constructs in the air, and a visual palette that looked more like a prestige crime drama than anything resembling the vibrant comic book world of the Green Lantern Corps. 

Now, comic book artist Ethan Van Sciver, who no longer works for DC Comics following a split in 2018, is offering a significant piece of context about the show. Taking to X, the former DC artist suggested that the word Lanterns in the title is doing more work than people realize. Van Sciver noted that: "The show is called LANTERNS because it will also introduce other colors on the spectrum. At least Yellow." 

This means the show was never intended to be all green by design. In DC Comics, the Green Lantern mythology extends far beyond a single Corps. The concept of the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum, a system in which different emotions can be harnessed as ring-powered energy, was introduced in Green Lantern: Rebirth, and later fully expanded through the Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night storylines. The spectrum maps every major emotion to a color, with green representing willpower, sitting at the center as the most stable energy. 

Every color on either side grows progressively harder to wield as it moves away from that center point. Some popular colours include red, used by the Red Lantern Corps, which channels uncontrollable anger. Yellow, by the Sinestro Corps (Yellow Lantern Corps), depends on fear. Interestingly, Sinestro himself appears in Lanterns, with actor Ulrich Thomsen cast in the role. Other colours on the spectrum include blue, indigo, violet, and orange. It is worth noting that Van Sciver co-created the Sinestro Corps with Geoff Johns. He has insider familiarity with how that mythology is supposed to function, and some reason to keep a close eye on how Lanterns handles it.

Why Fans Fear Lanterns Will Lack Colour

As one would expect, comic book fans are very passionate about the source material. So when the Lanterns trailer dropped, and fans got a glimpse of Hal Jordan's suit hanging in a closet, they were alarmed. The suit looked brown and dull rather than the bright green fans associate with the character. 

It appeared to be made of leather and Kevlar-like material rather than the light-based ring constructs familiar from the comics. Kyle Chandler's Jordan was also shown flying without any green glow, a visual choice that again these passionate fans were not happy with.

Those concerns aren't unfounded, though. Lanterns is the first live-action Green Lantern adaptation in 15 years, with Ryan Reynolds' 2011 film being the last, and it deliberately grounds two of DC's foremost space cops on Earth. The show places them in a detective story rather than sending them into the stars, which some people understandably aren’t a fan of.

However, the criticism may be too harsh since the trailer constitutes just a small part of the show. There's still a chance there would be a lot of colour in the series, and that Hal's suit is even an old one, and we might get to see him in a more vibrant uniform.