The first teaser for HBO Max’s Lanterns is finally here, and instead of a tidal wave of emerald hype, it has sparked a very specific fan complaint: for a show about the Green Lanterns, a lot of people think it looks awfully… beige.
The series, starring Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, is set to premiere in August 2026 and follows the two Lanterns as they investigate a murder in the American heartland. The official setup leans hard into grounded mystery, with DC and HBO positioning it more like a brooding prestige crime series than a cosmic superhero spectacle.
That tonal choice is exactly what has fans bickering online. The teaser largely trades glowing constructs, alien worlds and bright comic-book iconography for dirt roads, tense stares and a drab visual palette. Several entertainment outlets noted that the preview offers very little of the signature Green Lantern imagery many viewers expected, including minimal ring action, almost no vibrant green visuals and a more grounded costume approach that some fans felt undercut the whole point of adapting this corner of the DC universe in the first place. Watch below:
The backlash got loud enough that HBO Max’s social team decided to have some fun with it. After complaints that the teaser showed “no green,” the platform cheekily responded with a still from the trailer featuring a green basket and the caption, essentially, “What do you mean there’s no green?” It was a smart little troll, but it also confirmed the obvious: yes, they know fans were expecting a lot more Lantern and a lot less dusty HBO noir.
To be fair, the criticism is not exactly crazy. Green Lantern is one of DC’s most visually distinctive mythologies. Fans have waited years for a live-action version that embraces the full weird, luminous, cosmic scale of the comics. So when the first real look arrives and feels closer to True Detective than Oa, disappointment was basically baked into the reaction. Even outlets that were not outright negative pointed to the same central question: why sell a Green Lantern show by downplaying so much of what makes Green Lantern, well, Green Lantern?
Still, there is another way to read the teaser. HBO and DC may simply be holding back the bigger mythology for later marketing. The official description still frames Hal and John as intergalactic cops, and reporting around the show has confirmed that the series sits inside DC Studios’ new universe, with Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro and Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner also part of the larger Lantern picture. In other words, the cosmic stuff is almost certainly in there. The teaser just chose to spotlight mood over fireworks.
That may prove to be a smart move. Or it may turn out to be one of those galaxy-brain marketing decisions where a studio tries so hard to look “serious” that it accidentally hides the fun. Right now, the trailer has done one thing very well: it got people talking.
Whether viewers end up praising Lanterns for its restraint or roasting it for being the least green Green Lantern adaptation imaginable will depend on what the next trailer shows. Because at some point, this show is going to have to stop flirting with the concept and actually light the damn ring.
The Geek is a working screenwriter, director and screenwriting instructor.
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