Green Lantern’s HBO creator addresses backlash after trailer release

When the first trailer for HBO’s Lanterns arrived, most superhero fans had the same puzzled reaction. Sure, the new show from James Gunn’s DC Universe looked cool in a gritty, True Detective kind of way, but it didn’t really look like a Green Lantern show. After all, for a story ostensibly about two guys who use sci-fi alien rings to create any object they can imagine out of green light, the Lanterns didn’t feature a single instance of those iconic green light constructs.

A second trailer attempted to win over concerned fans by featuring multiple examples of the Green Lantern ring in action, and in an email interview with Polygon, Lanterns executive producer Chris Mundy sets the record straight once and for all.

“Fans should expect to see constructs,” the Ozark showrunner and True Detective producer says.

For Polygon’s 2026 Summer Preview, we sent our two biggest Lanterns questions across space and time into the DC Universe and received a response. Here’s what we learned.

Polygon: The first trailer for Lanterns looks amazing, but was light on special effects. Can fans expect to see lots of Green Lantern constructs in the show?

Chris Mundy: We’re a show that leads with our characters and our actors. We want to be grounded in their performance and their emotional reality. That said, we’re a show steeped in the canon of Green Lantern. So, absolutely, fans should expect to see constructs. We’re not going to run away from the cornerstone of the mythology.

Tom King previously said the goal was to make a “superhero show worthy of a Sunday 9 p.m. HBO series.” What does that mean? What are your benchmarks for achieving that lofty goal

When you think Sunday 9 p.m. HBO, you think prestige television. And that’s a pretty amorphous term. There are all different kinds of genres that fit under that umbrella. But the common denominator is great character work. So, that’s the benchmark. Our goal is to create characters that are three-dimensional and who make you feel emotionally connected. Hopefully, we’re creating a show that will be fun and that’ll surprise people. But, within that, we’re trying to create a place where you can be deeply connected to the reality of the people you’re watching.

Lanterns premieres Aug. 16 on HBO and HBO Max.