Episode 1.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe latest installment in James Gunn and Peter Safran\u2019s DC Universe has kicked off with a bang \u2013 literally. Well, at least we assume there was a bang when Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) was shot and killed offscreen in the Lanterns premiere\u2026<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right: In the final moments of the first episode of Lanterns<\/u>, the iconic Green Lantern \u2013 test pilot, hero, protector of Sector 2814, founding member of the Justice League (in the comics anyway), and disheveled grumpy grump (in the new show at least) \u2013 is found dead, apparently shot in the head. It\u2019s a startling and, frankly, exciting way to begin this new series.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI spoke to showrunner Chris Mundy about this turn of events, and he told me that the decision to kill Hal \u201cwas kind of big and scary.\u201d Mundy, who created the new show along with Damon Lindelof (HBO\u2019s Watchmen<\/u>) and Eisner-winning comics scribe Tom King<\/u>, said that the mystery at the center of the show \u2013 which has been billed as \u201cTrue Detective With Superheroes\u201d \u2013 needed to be as \u201cmeaningful and emotional as possible\u201d for John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), the would-be Green Lantern who is training under Hal.<\/p>\n
But not just for John \u2013 the Lantern writers also felt that the death of Hal would be pivotal to telling that character\u2019s story as well. With the show jumping back and forth between time periods, we will of course continue to see Chandler as Hal, even if we know his eventual endpoint. But in 2026, when John sees Hal\u2019s body, he notices that his old mentor is no longer wearing the Green Lantern ring. So what happened to it? \u201cIt felt like [the right thing to do] in a show about someone trying to hold onto this thing, losing it, and then where does he end up and why?\u201d said Mundy. \u201cAnd can we do the math to get to that point? How do we use that? Because obviously you don’t take something like that lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read on for my full chat with Mundy about Episode 1 of Lanterns!<\/p>\n
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Lanterns Images<\/h3>\n<\/span><\/output><\/p>\n
IGN: At what point in the process did you decide to work within multiple timelines to tell the story? In the first episode I think we hit three different time periods.<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Mundy: <\/strong>Yeah, pretty much from the jump. We always knew we were going to do two timelines and that there were going to be a couple of different mysteries, literal mysteries that we play, and then also sort of emotional mysteries. I think once we’d done that, we felt that there was a certain freedom to going back in time at other times too. It’s the beauty too of having a show, of playing a teaser before the title card. It gives you a little bit of license to step into something else that’s going to deepen things hopefully. And we used that a few different times over the course of the season.<\/p>\nIGN: Because you’re set in this bigger James Gunn universe, were there ever any times where you had to get approval in terms of the timeline, or did he let you guys just go with it?<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Mundy: <\/strong>Initially we asked about that, and he was just starting to shoot Superman<\/u>. So we were able to read that, which was super helpful. And then there were no real constraints besides that, but obviously everybody at DC, one of our studios, they’re reading [our scripts]. If anything would’ve bumped, that’s an easy phone call or a text. \u201cOh, that’s bumping up against the plan.\u201d We’re partners in this together.<\/p>\n‘Getting Kyle to say yes was a huge weight off our shoulders because Hal could be a bit of an asshole, but Kyle’s just
not<\/em> an asshole.’\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nIGN: Is it annoying having to worry about that stuff at times though?<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Mundy: <\/strong>No, it’s just \u2013 to be honest \u2013 I assumed stepping into a show inside a universe like that, I figured that kind of stuff would be happening all the time. I thought it would happen a ton and it virtually didn’t happen at all. So if anything, it was more I felt the good fortune of having no real restraints.<\/p>\nIGN: I think that’s one of the things that’s interesting about your show. Even though for someone like me, I understand it’s set in the bigger James Gunn universe, but my wife for example probably is going to just enjoy it as an HBO drama and not even think about those things.<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Mundy:<\/strong> Exactly. We wanted each of those types of people to have entry to the show. That was super important to us.<\/p>\nIGN: Were there any concerns about making Hal kind of an asshole?<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Mundy: <\/strong>Yeah. [laughs] I mean, look, you start a show and there’s concerns about everything because you want it to be good, you want people to like it, but you also want to make sure that you’re doing the most pure version of it you can. So you don’t want to get inside your head too much and edit [or] censor yourself. I think getting Kyle to say yes was a huge weight off our shoulders because Hal could be a bit of an asshole, but Kyle’s just not<\/em> an asshole. So you could write it up here and he delivers it and it’d be funny, but it still plays down here because he’s so charming. I’d like to say that was something to do with us or our skill, and it’s like 0% us and 100% Kyle.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nJohn Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/output><\/p>\n
IGN: Yeah, it’s Coach, right?<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Mundy: <\/strong>Exactly. It’s like, “Come on, he’s coaching!”<\/p>\nIGN: Killing off Hal \u2013 obviously that’s a big deal. Can you tell me a little bit about your thought process on how you landed on that idea?<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Mundy: <\/strong>We needed whatever that mystery was to be as meaningful as possible and as emotional as possible for John, for Hal in a way, but also for the audience. So it felt like [the right thing to do] in a show about someone trying to hold onto this thing, losing it, and then where does he end up and why? And can we do the math to get to that point? How do we use that? Because obviously you don’t take something like that lightly. It’s a huge thing. So is it being done to illuminate not just John, but also illuminate Hal in the best way possible? So the fact that they had confidence or, really, faith in us at least to do it and treat it with the level of care that we hopefully gave it, we felt really lucky. But yeah, it was kind of big and scary just because it’s a choice.<\/p>\nCheck back at IGN every week for the latest on Lanterns!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nThis interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\nTalk to Scott Collura <\/em>@scottcollura.bsky.social<\/strong><\/em>, or listen to his <\/em>Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3<\/strong><\/em>. Or do both!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a>Full spoilers follow for HBO\u2019s Lanterns Episode 1. The latest installment in James Gunn and Peter Safran\u2019s DC Universe has kicked off with a bang…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[9189,5776,2867,12674,28389,1338],"class_list":["post-77152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-chris","tag-episode","tag-explained","tag-lanterns","tag-mundy","tag-showrunner","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}