LANTERNS Trailer Teases Sinestro, a Hidden Manhunter and Trouble Between Hal and John

HBO’s Lanterns kicked off with one hell of a premiere, and after that wild final reveal, the big question was obvious: Where does the story go from here? HBO has now released a new “This Season On” trailer, and the answer involves a fractured partnership, more alien trouble, a dangerous Manhunter, Sinestro, and plenty of mystery surrounding Hal Jordan’s fate.

The new footage, released August 17, gives us a much better look at what’s coming during the remaining episodes of the DCU series, and things are only going to get messier for Hal Jordan and John Stewart.

I really enjoyed the first episode. It was a great start to the series and immediately sold me on the interesting Green Lantern crime story it is telling. The murder investigation and rural Nebraska setting gave the story and characters a completely different flavor. I think we’re in for a great series.

From here we get into some spoiler territory.

The pilot introduced Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, with the central investigation taking the story to Rushfield, Nebraska. Hal suspected that the bizarre murder they were looking into involved something extraterrestrial, and he eventually discovered that the suspect was actually an alien hiding in plain sight.

Things got considerably more intense when the alien blew itself up. Hal managed to contain the explosion with his power ring, but that wasn't the biggest surprise the episode had waiting for us.

The story suddenly jumped forward to 2026. John arrived in Rushfield by himself and discovered Hal’s frozen body. Even more troubling, Hal’s Green Lantern ring was missing.

It was a killer way to end the premiere, instantly changing our understanding of where the story was headed and leaving a huge mystery hanging over Hal and his ring.

The new Lanterns trailer starts teasing what leads to that moment, while raising several more questions in the process.

Hal warns that an incredibly dangerous being now knows that someone has discovered its presence, which suggests the murder investigation is connected to something much bigger than one disguised alien. The Lanterns also find themselves racing against the clock to locate a hidden Manhunter, with only 48 hours to find it.

And then there’s Sinestro. His presence brings another major piece of Green Lantern mythology into the series, and the trailer suggests the cosmic side of the story is going to continue expanding as Hal and John dig deeper into whatever is happening in Rushfield.

At the center of everything, though, is the increasingly difficult relationship between Hal and John. Hal makes it clear that nobody is taking his ring from him while he’s still breathing, which takes on a much darker meaning after seeing where the premiere eventually leaves him.

John, meanwhile, is being forced to decide just how much faith he should put in Hal. Other people are pushing him to walk away from the mission, and the footage makes it clear that trust between the two Lanterns isn't going to come easily.

That conflict could end up being one of the strongest elements of the show. Chandler and Pierre already bring very different energies to Hal and John, and putting these two characters at odds while forcing them to work the same increasingly dangerous case gives Lanterns plenty to play with.

Lanterns was developed for HBO by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King as part of the DCU’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. The eight-episode series takes inspiration from crime dramas such as True Detective and Slow Horses, mixing a grounded investigation with the much stranger mythology of the Green Lantern universe.

After watching the premiere, that combination works better than I expected. Instead of immediately going huge with a traditional cosmic superhero adventure, Lanterns is allowing the mystery to pull us deeper into the story one disturbing discovery at a time.

New episodes of Lanterns premiere Sundays at 9 PM on HBO, with the eight-episode season running through October 4, 2026.

The first episode got me hooked, and this trailer makes the road ahead look even more exciting.