This post contains spoilers for Episode 2 of Lanterns
Well, they do call the Green Lanterns “space cops” for a reason. In the closing moments of “Trust Fall,” the second episode of HBO’s newest DC Universe series, Lanterns, Earth’s resident Emerald Knight, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), leaves terra firma behind and flies to a distant planet that serves as a prison for the various threats captured by these intergalactic enforcers.
He’s specifically there to visit someone that he — and DC Comics fans — know all too well: Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), a prisoner with a beet-red face and a wealth of information. Newcomers to the Green Lantern mythos will presumably get the full backstory on who Sinestro is and how he came to be in the weeks ahead, but the short version is that he’s an ex-Lantern who was drummed out of the service for using the Power Ring to achieve his own selfish ends.
In the world of Lanterns, at least, he’s also apparently the Hannibal Lecter to Jordan’s Will Graham — the vanquished, but still dangerous foe that Hal comes to when he needs intel on a case. And right now he’s got an urgent need for information, with little time for a meaty conversation. “Tell me what you know about Manhunters,” Hal tells Sinestro, referring to the other villains that joined the show’s expanding universe during the second episode.
“If one still existed, they’d be the second greatest threat you’re currently facing,” Sinestro responds, the severity of his words contrasting sharply with his poker-faced expression. And then since Hal needs him a lot more than he needs Hal, the former Lantern presents Jordan with his fee for any Manhunter knowledge. “Why don’t you tell me about John Stewart?”
As it so happens, Hal’s partner in Lantern-ing already got a crash course in Manhunter Studies. Held hostage by members of another alien cohort, Stewart (Aaron Pierre) learns exactly why these beings should be feared. “There was a time of chaos in the galaxy, and then the Manhunters came,” his captor of says of the synthetic beings, who are able to build new bodies that allow them to blend into the populace of whatever planet they’re on. Once disguised and embedded, they wiped out entire populations before disappearing themselves.
But one lone Manhunter still remains on Earth, hiding in America’s heartland in human form — and the group holding John believes that Hal might be its protector. That means they want Stewart to locate and kill this galactic threat, and give him a 48-window to accomplish that mission lest they take matters into their own hands by turning the Nebraska town of Rushville and its surrounding territory into a smoldering crater.
Even though he and Hal aren’t on the best of terms, John still shares the details of his ordeal with the elder Lantern, but gets little information in return. “It’s above your pay grade, junior,” is all Jordan is willing to say. And once John heads off to bed, that’s when Hal heads off into the stars to make his house call to Sinestro.
Lanterns itself is headed for the ratings stratosphere. Warner Bros. Discovery disclosed earlier this week that the series premiere scored 9.3 million global viewers across HBO and HBO Max in its first three days, outperforming its fellow DC-derived shows like Peacemaker and The Penguin. That ratings power, combined with the show’s strong reviews, catapults Lanterns into the early 2027 Emmys conversation along with this summer’s other big hits like Cape Fear, The Vampire Lestat, and Furious. Here are our early predictions for where the show could score nominations next year.
Best Drama Series
Speaking of The Penguin, that HBO series stands as the second-most Emmy nominated show based on DC Comics characters, picking up 24 nominations and nine statuettes in the Limited Series categories at last year’s Emmys. What’s the most-nominated DC series, you ask? That would be Watchmen, Damon Lindelof‘s sequel series to Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel, which received 26 Limited Series nominations and 11 wins at the 2020 ceremony. Not for nothing, but Lindelof is part of the creative team behind Lanterns — along with Chris Mundy and Tom King — which already has a second season in development. Should HBO end up ordering a fresh batch of episodes, the show could become the first DC series, and the first superhero series overall, to compete for the Drama Series statuette instead of staying confined to the Limited Series realm. (It should be noted that Lindelof isn’t part of the show’s Season 2 plans as he’s busy overseeing another HBO limited series, The Chain.) With Lanterns already following many of the moves in Watchmen‘s playbook — including a time-skipping narrative structure and a grounded mystery underpinning the superhero shenanigans — the series could score many of the same nominations in the Drama Series categories, starting with the top prize.
Best Drama Actor and Best Drama Supporting Actor
Make no mistake, Lanterns has two leading men. But when it comes to the Emmys, expect Chandler’s Jordan to be pushed as the lead, while Pierre’s Stewart takes the supporting route. In the making-of featurette that played after “Trust Fall,” Lindelof broke down why Season 1 is very much Hal’s story, noting that it’s rare to see a portrait of a superhero in middle age. “That was super-interesting to us,” he noted. “This story is about a guy that’s not ready to hang it up.” And, by the way, the series premiere cliffhanger revealed how Hal’s refusal to pick it in might have led to a bitter end.
It also doesn’t hurt that Chandler is already an Emmy winner in this category, having taken home the prize for the final season of Friday Night Lights in 2011. (Additional nominations for his post-FNL series, Bloodline, suggest that he’s popular in the industry.) Pierre, meanwhile, is a rising star who will likely take center stage in a potential Season 2 depending on how Hal’s journey ultimately wraps up by the first season’s eighth and final episode. A Best Drama Supporting Actor nomination would reflect his character’s apparent journey from the new kid on the block to Earth’s top space cop.
Best Drama Writing and Best Drama Directing
Using Watchmen as a guide, that limited series received three directing nominations and one writing nomination, with Lindelof and future Oscar winner, Cord Jefferson, sharing a win in the latter category. It’s easy to imagine Lindelof sharing another nomination with a fellow Lanterns scribe for one of the four scripts he cowrote in Season 1, be it the confidently plotted series premiere or a midseason stunner along the lines of his Watchmen winner, “This Extraordinary Being.” Meanwhile, the show’s deft mixture of superhero spectacle and True Detective style crime solving makes it a prime candidate for directing bids. Three nominations might be a stretch, but the premiere alone demonstrated a more consistent sense of style, tone, and pace than DC’s big-screen summer offering, Supergirl.
Below the line
If Spider-Noir can rack up 11 Emmys for its crafts, Lanterns should spin its own web in many of those categories as well. Think along the lines of:
Best Visual Effects: As Lindelof himself noted in a making-of featurette, Green Lantern isn’t Green Lantern without his Power Ring. Bringing the ring’s powers to life in a believable way defeated Martin Campbell and Ryan Reynolds on the ill-fated Green Lantern feature film, but the Lanterns VFX team has so far made both hard traveling heroes soar. Look for future installments to get even braver and bolder in their spectacle.
Best Costumes: It’s true what they say — the clothes really do make the superhero. That sentiment is confirmed by seeing Hal step into his Green Lantern duds at the end of Episode 2. Costume designer Cynthia Ann Summers translated the Emerald Knight’s ring-generated comics costume into a practical suit that fits the real world vibe of the show.
Best Music Composition: Stephanie Economou’s Lanterns score is powerful mood-setter and knowingly strikes a different chord than past DC series.
Best Stunts: Whether it’s The Boys or Spider-Noir, superhero series are prime contenders for the various stunt categories at the Emmys. The inevitable Hal vs. Sinestro brawl should be one of many stunt-heavy sequences that the Lanterns team will be able to submit when Phase 1 voting opens next summer.
