Green Lantern's ring passes to Kyle Chandler

Josh Brolin declined to don a Green Lantern ring, so DC Studios had to look elsewhere for a middle aged white actor who can fit the role of “experienced mentor.” Enter Kyle Chandler, beloved Coach Taylor of Friday Night Lights fame. According to Entertainment Weekly, Chandler has closed a deal to play Hal Jordan in the HBO series Lanterns. Hal’s partner in this series, John Stewart, has not yet been cast. (The search is still “ongoing,” per Deadline.)

Chandler is a good fit for the role; he’s got classic superhero good looks with none of the superhero baggage Brolin has on his resumé. He can believably play the older, more experienced partner in the old cop/new recruit dynamic that is being set up here between Hal and John. That role also makes sense for Hal, who is the original (human) Green Lantern; the character acts as a bridge between what’s going on in the Green Lantern Corps. and on Earth. 

DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran have established that their film and television output will all be part of the same interconnected DC universe. Right now, Nathan Fillion is set to be the next big-screen Green Lantern, playing Guy Gardner in the upcoming Superman movie. Whether he might show up on the series remains to be seen, but Gunn teased that the show will have “a few other Lanterns peppered in.” However, don’t expect to see many of the non-human members of the Green Lantern Corps.—or the other far-flung intergalactic sectors under the Corps.’ jurisdiction—as this is “really a terrestrial-based TV show that is almost like True Detective with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over precinct Earth,” as Gunn described it (via EW). The series is being spearheaded by Ozark’s Chris Mundy, Watchmen‘s Damon Lindelof, and comic book writer Tom King.