DC Studios has attracted some exciting talent for the DCU, though it could do with a few more A-listers. Fortunately, Jeff Sneider is reporting today that Laura Linney has joined the cast of HBO Max's Lanterns.
The Love Actually star has been the recipient of many awards, including three Emmys and two Golden Globes. She's also received three Academy Award nominations.
Who is Linney playing? Sneider isn't sure. However, Kyle Chandler is 59 and Linney is 61; taking that into account, it would make sense for her to take on the role of Carol Ferris, the love of Hal Jordan's life and the superhero known as Star Sapphire. The reporter acknowledged that it's a possibility on The Hot Mic podcast.
We wouldn't be surprised if she's powerless in the DCU, unless the Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Indigo and Violet, Black, White, and Ultraviolet Corps from across the emotional spectrum have existed for years.
Fans have been critical of the decision to cast an older Hal for Lantern, arguing that the Green Lantern Corps member needed a younger actor to tell the hero's story over several years. Chandler is one hell of a talent, though, and pairing him up with Linney would be no bad thing. John Stewart, meanwhile, is expected to be the DCU's main Green Lantern.
Linney is known for her work across film and television. On the small screen, you've likely seen her in Wild Iris, Frasier, The Big C, and Ozark. In theaters, she's starred in The Truman Show, Kinsey, and Sully.
Slow Horses' James Hawes helmed the first two episodes of Lanterns, and in March, he dropped some hints about what fans can expect from the series.
"There is a very particular humor that they brought to this," he revealed. "It's very rooted in a way that I like to think we achieve with Slow Horses, that I achieve with things like my Black Mirror's, and yet there is a rich vein of humor running through it."
"To some extent, it's a swerve. Superheroes are not somewhere I've really played before, but it's created in such a way—and I can't tell you much—that it bewitched me," Hawes added. "It doesn't lack its sci-fi magic, but it's done in a world where you accept that these things just are."
"They don't need that extra sprinkle of sci-fi fairy dust. It works within a physical world that we've come to know."
DC Studios' Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
Chris Mundy (True Detective: Night Country) is serving as showrunner and executive producer and will write Lanterns with Damon Lindelof (Watchmen) and comic book scribe Tom King (Supergirl). The cast includes Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, and Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro.
Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Nicole Ari Parker, Jason Ritter, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones round out the supporting cast.
Lanterns is set to premiere on HBO and Max in 2026.