James Gunn has once again incurred the wrath of DC Comics fans, this time for sharing a tribute to Hal Jordan on social media.
"I can't wait for a whole new audience to meet him in LANTERNS (and yes, Kyle Chandler was born to wear that ring)," the Superman director and co-CEO of DC Studios wrote in his post.
Possible spoilers follow.
So, why would anyone be pissed off about this?
Though nothing has been confirmed, rumor has it that Jordan is killed off at the end of the very first episode of Lanterns. Another report claims that it doesn't happen until episode 4, but either way, it's looking likely that the veteran ring-slinging hero will not make it to the end of the series.
Like many comic book characters, Jordan has died and returned on the page (more than once), and there's always a chance his demise in the HBO Max series could lead to him being resurrected as the villainous Parallax.
That said, Chandler is 60 years of age, so something tells us this new live-action take on the hero's death will be permanent. The ring will pass to John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), who has been confirmed to make his big-screen debut in James Gunn's Man of Tomorrow.
You can check out some (most of) the comments below Gunn's post for an idea of how annoyed fans are by this (rumored) development.
Lanterns is set to debut on August 17 and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios. The pilot episode is co-written by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, who are co-creators for the series. Mundy serves as showrunner. The first two episodes are directed by James Hawes, with Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov also tapped to direct. The series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, James Gunn, Peter Safran, King, Ron Schmidt, and Hawes. Based on the DC comic characters from Green Lantern.
The series stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
The series follows new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
"This is a story of a couple of Green Lanterns John Stewart and Hal Jordan," James Gunn said of the project when it was first announced. "We have a few other Lanterns peppered in there but this is really a terrestrial based TV show which is almost like True Detective with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over Precinct Earth in it they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our largest story of the DCU."