We are only one episode into Lanterns, but the latest DCU series is already facing significant backlash for the decision to kill off Hal Jordan at the end of the premiere.
Hal's (apparent) demise aside, there's been a lot of resistance to the concept of a relatively grounded True Detective-style take on a comic book about a group of intergalactic peacekeepers.
During a new interview with THR, showrunner Chris Mundy addressed the controversial creative choices, and why he feels some fans are so resistant to giving a different approach a chance when it's been "proven time and time again that no one actually wants more of the same."
"It’s probably something that’s been with them their whole lives," said Mundy. "If you’re a Green Lantern fan, you’ve probably been a Green Lantern fan since you were a kid. They just hold it a little closer and a little more dear. I think it comes from a really good place, which is, I really care about this thing. Don’t mess it up."
"This is just our story for a minute," he added. "Five or ten years from now, someone else is going to be the steward of it. If people see that those of us making Lanterns right now really care about it and are taking good care of it, then hopefully they’ll trust us a little bit. But it really is this feeling of, I care about this thing. Don’t break it. And I get that. They’re passionate about it."
Though Lanterns has not been officially renewed for a second season, tentative plans are in place to continue the series - depending on the reception to these first 8 episodes. Mundy notes that, should they get the chance to develop another season, the story will unfold in a "slightly different way."
There's been speculation that Lanterns could potentially continue as an anthology-type show focusing on various ring-slinging heroes from different sectors around the galaxy.
“We feel good that we told the story in season one well. The question is whether [season two] is a story people are interested in. If that’s the case, then we’ll get to do another one. We’ll tell it in a slightly different way, so that it feels fresh, with characters you know and care about. We’re about six weeks into laying out a season, and then we’ll talk to folks about it really soon."
Finally, Mundy was asked whether James Gunn was heavily involved with the show's development, and if he gave any "mandates" when it came to John Stewart, who will return for the director's Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow.
"At the very beginning, James was off doing Superman. He was in the thick of it, and he was in the trenches. So while he would come in for high-level stuff, there was a fair amount of trust that he was gracious enough to give us as he was making his gigantic movie.
John Stewart is going to be in the Superman follow-up, Man of Tomorrow, but James never asked you to set the stage by leaving him at a bus stop in Omaha? (Laughs.) No, we were really lucky in that way. We knew we were putting John on his feet, but there wasn’t an actual story point that we had to land him on. In one way, it makes it scarier because it could be anything, but at the same time, we weren’t shoehorned into anything at all.
What did you make of the Lanterns series premiere? Let us know in the comments.
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.