LANTERNS Almost Didn’t Give Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan a Green Lantern Suit

The trailers for DC’s upcoming Lanterns have given us a brief look at Kyle Chandler suited up as Hal Jordan, offering fans their first taste of how the series will handle the Green Lantern costume in live action.

But while seeing Hal in the familiar green is something you’d naturally expect from a show called Lanterns, it turns out the costume wasn’t always part of the plan.

In fact, the creative team apparently spent much of the production unsure whether Hal would wear a Green Lantern suit at all. According to Chandler, the decision to include it came fairly late, which meant the costume department suddenly had to figure out exactly what this older, battle-tested version of the DC hero should look like.

During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, Chandler explained: "So they weren't sure whether there was going to be a suit as I understand it. Then towards the end they decide let's have a suit. Then they had to design a suit, they came up with three different designs."

That’s pretty wild considering how closely the Green Lantern identity is tied to the uniform. The costume, the ring, and that unmistakable green glow are baked into the character, but it makes a little more sense when you consider what DC is trying to do with Lanterns.

The series isn’t being presented as a conventional superhero adventure. Instead, it blends its cosmic DC mythology with crime noir and a more grounded small-town mystery.

Chandler’s veteran Hal Jordan teams up with Aaron Pierre as Green Lantern recruit John Stewart as the two investigate a case in small-town America that appears to have much larger cosmic implications.

With that approach, it’s easy to imagine an earlier version of the show where the Green Lantern mythology was handled more subtly and Hal spent most of his time looking like a regular investigator rather than a full-blown intergalactic superhero.

Thankfully, somebody eventually decided that if you’ve got Hal Jordan in a Green Lantern series, you might as well let the guy look like Green Lantern.

Once that call was made, the costume team apparently went all in. Chandler says the finished Green Lantern suit even reflects Hal’s history, complete with wear from his years in action. He explained:

"It's an incredible suit, they built something that was just incredible. It took a while, it was in pieces. It took about 45 minutes to get it on."

Chandler also described the costume as having "battle scars on it," which feels particularly appropriate for this incarnation of Hal. This isn’t supposed to be a fresh-faced rookie discovering what his power ring can do.

He’s an experienced Lantern who has clearly been through some stuff, and having the costume physically reflect that history is a nice touch.

The creative team developed three different designs before settling on the final version. From the brief glimpses we’ve gotten so far, that extra effort seems to have paid off.

More importantly, the worn and battle-damaged design could tell us something about the Hal Jordan we’re going to meet. This version of the character has already lived the superhero life.

Putting him alongside Pierre’s younger John Stewart gives Lanterns an experienced-veteran-and-new-recruit dynamic that should offer plenty to play with as their investigation becomes increasingly cosmic.

And while a Green Lantern series absolutely needs compelling characters and a great mystery before it needs a cool costume, come on. It’s Green Lantern. At some point, you want to see that ring light up and Hal Jordan wearing the green.

Luckily, Lanterns ultimately decided to give fans exactly that. Lanterns premiered August 16 on HBO Max.