HBO Max has released the first five minutes of Lanterns, giving fans an early look at the series before its August 16 release. The preview opens in 1996 and shows Aaron Pierre as John Stewart watching the first public interview with Hal Jordan.
The clip matters because it does more than tease the show. It shows Jordan presenting himself as the first Green Lantern of Earth while also making clear that, by this point, he has already been Earth’s Green Lantern for almost a decade. That detail gives the Lanterns release date added weight today, because the preview is not just selling an action series. It is sketching a timeline.
James Gunn announced Lanterns in 2023, and this first look suggests the series is being built as part of DC’s plan to introduce the Green Lantern Corps. The opening minutes also jump from 1996 to 2016, which tells viewers the story is moving across years rather than staying locked in one moment. For fans trying to place the show inside the DCU, that matters because the preview implies Green Lanterns were already on Earth before Superman appears in the DCU timeline.
That is where the clip gets interesting. Jordan’s interview line, and the way it is framed, hints at a version of events that does not fit neatly into the expectations some viewers may have had about the franchise order. @_TheSmartAlec1 summed up that reaction bluntly, asking whether it is all a prequel, while @TheCinePlus noted that the first five minutes place the story in 1996 with a young John Stewart watching Jordan reveal his identity. The friction is not in the spectacle. It is in the chronology.
Fans of Lanterns now have the clearest sign yet of how the series wants to introduce its world before launch. The unanswered part is how the 1996 opening and the 2016 jump connect to the full story arriving on August 16. For now, the preview says the show is not just bringing back Green Lantern lore. It is rearranging the timeline around it.
