Despite DC Studios' Lanterns series still being set for sometime in 2026, fans have been given relatively little from the series. To this point, only a handful of HD images from the upcoming superhero epic have surfaced online, with the project's official trailer still evading audiences.
The closest audiences have come to an outright sneak peek in the lead-up to the star-faring crime drama was during HBO Max's "Coming in 2026" teaser. This roughly two-minute promo included footage from across the HBO slate for the year, including some of the first publicly released Lanterns footage. While not quite the deep dive some fans have been hoping for, the brief glance at the upcoming DC series debuted exciting new information about what is to come.
The Lanterns portion of the "Coming in 2026" video opens with the show's central Green Lantern heroes, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), entering what seems to be a town hall meeting. Much has been made about the show's, at least initial, setting around a series of grisly murders in America's heartland. One can assume the town hall is directly related to that.
Fans immediately get two more looks at what seems to be this early going in the Earthbound portion of John and Hal's criminal investigation. The first features Pierre's newly recruited Green Lantern character standing in the middle of a field, likely a central crime scene.
The next scene sees Earth's two ring-bearers walking through the plastic wrap used to protect evidence, seemingly entering the room in which one of the show's killings has occurred.
From here, the Lanterns first look is nearly bound to a single location, a car driving down a dusty highway.
It has been said that much of the 2026 Green Lantern show will be about longtime Lantern Hal Jordan mentoring the young John Stewart, and this car scene appears to be focused on a trial directly related to that.
Audiences get a close look at one of the characters' (assumed to be Hal's) Green Lantern rings, as Hal gives a long and laborious speech, telling John, "You are not ready... until the ring says you are."
It is at this moment that Hal leaps from the car, leaving John alone in the out-of-control vehicle.
John fumbles around in the vehicle, while the camera pans behind the 1990s sedan to see Hal confidently rolling onto the road.
Before John can regain control of the vehicle, it careens off a cliff.
Fans get another glance at the car as it's launched from the dusty middle-of-nowhere highway and sent flying into the great beyond.
While audiences do not get a glimpse of John using his Lantern powers, this life-or-death trial is presumably to get the Green Lantern ring to call to Pierre's DC character, trying to draw his Lantern powers out of him by putting him into fight-or-flight mode.
The last that fans saw of the series is another image of Pierre's John stumbling down a freeway covered in blood. Seeing as he is wearing the same thing he was in the car, this was either after Hal's 'I'm going to launch you off a cliff' stunt or perhaps this comes during/slightly after an epic clash with one of the series' central villains.
Lanterns is just one of several DC Studios projects set to arrive in 2026. The live-action HBO Max series will follow a pair of Green Lanterns looking into a series of crimes in the middle of America. However, what starts as a series of conspicuous murders quickly turns into a cosmic conspiracy. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre lead the upcoming show with Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King serving as its central creative team. No specific release for Lanterns was announced, but it is expected sometime in late summer.
When Will the Lanterns Trailer Finally Arrive?
So, audiences have been given a first taste of Lanterns thanks to the HBO Max "Coming in 2026" promo, but this is seemingly just the appetizer to the full course that is sure to come within the next few months.
For a while, it appeared as though a full-length trailer for the new DC series was imminent. By the end of 2025, all the signs were there. In November, the first Lanterns trailer was shown off during a special HBO upfront in South America. That means a trailer is done; it is just a matter of when James Gunn and the DCU brass think it's a good time to debut it publicly.
When the series was originally envisioned as an early 2026 title, which was the case for a long time, a trailer before the end of 2025 made a lot of sense. That is no longer the case. With Lanterns now set for late summer, DC Studios has time before to release a trailer.
If a first proper look at the show arrives in the next couple of months, it will likely be in early February, specifically during Super Bowl LX on Sunday, February 8. The Super Bowl is the biggest TV event of the year, with more eyes turning to screens than on any other day on the content calendar. This makes it a fantastic place for studios to debut trailers for their biggest and best upcoming titles.
DC Studios rolling out the first official Lanterns trailer during the big game makes a lot of sense. This might still be early to kick off the show's marketing campaign in earnest, but if DC wants to drum up hype, there would be no better place to do it.
