Coach Taylor Is Set To Play Hal Jordan In HBO's New Green Lantern Series
Emmy winner Kyle Chandler is set to play the legendary member of the Green Lantern Corps in the series, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. The show will be the first series role for the Friday Night Lights star since Showtime’s 2022 drama Super Pumped.
Lanterns, which scored a straight-to-series order in June after years of development, comes from Chris Mundy (Ozark), Damon Lindelof (Watchmen, Lost) and Eisner Award-winning comics writer Tom King. The trio are co-writing and executive producing the series, with Mundy serving as showrunner.
Lanterns is described as having a gritty, True Detective vibe as it focuses on Jordan reluctantly mentoring a younger Lantern, John Stewart, who in DC publishing history was one of the company’s first Black superheroes. The story sees the two characters investigating an Earth-bound murder with larger implications. Sources say that DC and the producers are looking for a young, more fresh-faced actor for the role to play opposite an older and bigger name.
As someone whose primary Green Lantern experience came from the horrible Ryan Reynolds iteration, this series is really getting the gears going. This is mostly because of a few reasons:
1. The group in charge. Damon Lindelof is a master at weaving mysteries together (LOST, The Leftovers, Watchmen), and Mundy did some great work with Ozark.
2. The initial synopsis. The grittier tone is what made Lindelof's last comic book series, Watchmen, so great. Applying his lessons from that to this world has a ton of potential.
3. That world and lore. Again, my knowledge of Green Lantern is pretty limited. However, fans of the comics are DIE HARD and all I've ever heard from them is how cool the lore is and how dirty they've been done in live-action.
The speculation is that, because the deal Chandler allegedly got does not have a movie option, Jordan will probably die off during this series with John Stewart taking up the mantle. DC has about a 500 mile lead on the MCU as far as quality live-action series, so I see no reason to see why this doesn't end up the same.