DC Studios' upcoming Lanterns series earned a first-of-its-kind rating, marking a milestone for the collaboration between HBO and DC Studios. The show stars Aaron Pierre as John Stewart and Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, taking a gritty, grounded approach to the Green Lantern Corps. Set to debut on August 16, it's also the first live-action Green Lantern project in over a decade, but this time it won't be aimed at young audiences.
With Lanterns earning a TV-MA rating, it becomes the third consecutive live-action DC Studios series to land there, following The Penguin and Peacemaker Season 2. Three R-rated or TV-MA-rated live-action DC projects releasing in a row has never happened in the franchise's history.
That's a long way from where DC TV series stood not too long ago. For most of the 2010s, DC's live-action identity was largely built around its CW slate. The vast majority of those shows carried a more typical TV-14 rating. A few lighter entries, like Supergirl, dipped down to TV-PG fairly regularly.
The balance of having different maturity levels across all projects clearly shifted under James Gunn. The DC Studios co-CEO has been vocal about wanting each DCU project to have its own distinct identity, even if that means some of them aren't aimed at younger audiences.
On October 23, DC is putting out a full-blown R-rated, body horror film with Clayface. Directed by James Watkins and written by Mike Flanagan, Clayface stars Tom Rhys Harries as an up-and-coming actor who turns to a radical, experimental treatment after being disfigured, only for it to tragically mutate him into the shape-shifting Batman villain.
At the same time, 2025's Superman and this year's Supergirl land at PG-13, keeping the door open for wider audiences, more in line with the status quo of Marvel Studios' rivalry franchise. Disney finally let Marvel make an R-rated comedy in 2024 with Deadpool & Wolverine, which went on to earn $1.3 billion.
So the formula is there; the past DC regime even saw it with 2019's R-rated Joker film, which earned $1 billion despite its incredibly dark theming.
What makes the new DCU's wide range of ratings especially fun is seeing shared characters be placed in wildly different tonal worlds. Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), first introduced in the family-friendly Superman, then popped up in a swear-heavy Justice Gang recruitment scene in Peacemaker Season 2.
This also happened during a surprise Peacemaker cameo by Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, who vulgarly described his prison experience at Belle Reve to Frank Grillo's Rick Flag Sr.
Lanterns sets up a similar dynamic in reverse. John Stewart will debut in a serious, adult HBO drama before crossing over into Man of Tomorrow in 2027, a colorful film that will be chasing much broader audiences as Gunn's follow-up to Superman. Watching the same character shift between those two different (metaphorical) worlds will be one of the more fascinating things to track in the DCU going forward.
Lanterns is, at its core, an HBO show. Mature storytelling is built into its DNA, and based on what has been shown so far, the darkness here feels more serious than even Peacemaker.
Why DC's Lanterns Is TV-MA
Mature Content
Comparisons to True Detective are not to be taken lightly. Lanterns is being sold as a murder mystery built around sinister, unsettling crime and the kind of dark, twisted storytelling that is simply not made for all ages.
Gruesome details, on-screen depictions of death, and disturbing crime elements could all factor into the rating.
Beyond the mystery itself, the path to becoming a Green Lantern in this series does not look heroic or inviting. The second trailer's entire marketing angle was built around the question "Are You Afraid?" That is not a tone calibrated for younger viewers holding their Green Lantern action figures at home.
Language
The trailers have already made this one obvious. Chandler's Hal Jordan drops an F-bomb, calling someone "a f---ing substitute teacher," and fires off another reacting to "one of them is a f---ing squirrel."
Kelly Macdonald's sheriff Kerry draws a hard line, saying, "Stay the f--- out of my way," directed at John and Hal, who are clearly looking into the same small-town crime. The second trailer added to Hal's foul-mouthed nature, with the hero growling, "over my dead f---ing body."
That is four separate NSFW moments pulled from just a handful of marketing clips, making the coarse language a key part of the series' DNA, with many more expected across Season 1's eight episodes.
Violence
Lanterns aims to go further than something like Superman in what it actually puts on screen. Though the moment where Lex killed Mali in Superman was dark, it didn't show much. In Lanterns, a similar scene will likely display the full gore of gun violence.
The use of weaponry is evident throughout the marketing, and the second trailer leaned heavily on flashback sequences of John's time as a US Marine.
One standout moment in the second trailer shows John Stewart being forcibly restrained and potentially tortured with an unidentified weapon.
Despite conjuring glowing green shields and dollar bills, the show is ready to depict real, physical danger in a visceral and unflinching way. The cosmic clash of the Power Ring and the real-world danger make for a truly one-of-a-kind series, though some fans are worried that this adaptation isn't comic-book-accurate.
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