Director James Hawes delves into, and clarifies, the comparisons that have popped up between the upcoming DC series Lanterns and the hit HBO series True Detective. When James Gunn first announced his DCU plan for what he called Chapter 1 – Gods and Monsters, he pitched Lanterns as being like True Detective. It certainly isn’t hard to see where that comparison comes from, as Lanterns is being sold as a buddy cop series where the cops, here intergalactic police officers, investigate a mystery crime in the American heartland.
James Hawes, who serves as director for the first two episodes of Lanterns, dug into the tonal inspiration for the series while promoting his latest film, The Amateur. Hawes told The Hollywood Reporter that the series has some similarities to True Detective, but the series and characters have a bit more humor to them than True Detective. Hawes cited the work of the Coen brothers, particularly No Country for Old Men and Fargo, as inspirations for Lanterns. Hawes said:

“Talking tone, it looks and feels rooted. You meet two guys, but there is wit and comedy to it that you would not expect in True Detective. It is, in many ways, a buddy cop structure with travel in the story time, to and fro, that is really sophisticated. [Showrunner] Chris Mundy has done the most amazing job with the team there, and so I think [the True Detective comparison] is valid. People will still go, ‘What were you talking about?’ to some extent, but I would also bring in No Country for Old Men, Fargo and things that have that Americana heart to them. There’s a wry humor, and so there definitely is more wit and humor than there is in True Detective.”

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James Gunn’s initial pitch of Lanterns being like True Detective was coupled with his comparison of the upcoming Wonder Woman prequel series, Paradise Lost, to Game of Thrones. Both True Detective and Game of Thrones are HBO series, owned by DC Comics’ parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. Clearly, there was a bit of cross-promotion, linking two aspects of Warner Bros. history. With The Penguin also pulling heavily from The Sopranos and rumors circulating that The Righteous Gemstone creators were at one point working on Booster Gold, it appears that DC’s HBO and Max series are pulling heavily from the company’s history.
There certainly are fans who are disappointed that Lanterns is taking the hard sci-fi concept of Green Lantern and grounding it as an Earth-based series. Yet, the idea of taking the True Detective model of having two vastly different cops investigating a case is not a bad pitch for the Green Lantern concept, given the organization is coded as space police. While fans might have wanted a more traditional buddy cop sci-fi adventure, Lethal Weapon meets Star Trek, the direction that Lanterns is going in already sounds like a marked improvement over the 2011 Green Lantern film.
Lanterns is currently filming in Los Angeles, California, and is expected to air on HBO in 2026. It is projected to debut before Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow hits theaters on June 26, 2026, suggesting that it could be a spring or early summer series. The year 2026 is when the DCU machine fully kicks into overdrive. In addition to Lanterns and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the horror-themed film Clayface will open in September of that year. While on the surface, Creature Commandos, Superman, Peacemaker Season 2, Lanterns, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and Clayface make for a seemingly random slate of projects to kick off a universe, it shows the vastly different tones and genres these stories can tell. A Green Lantern series that is part True Detective but also part Coen Brothers is a strong pitch, that’s for sure.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Lanterns

Network

HBO

Directors

James Hawes

Writers

Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof