News Lanterns Lanterns Showrunner Explains How His Show Fits Into the Current DCU Timeline What’s Guy Gardner doing in a Very Serious Detective Program? By Molly Templeton | Published on May 14, 2026 Credit: John P. Johnson/HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: John P. Johnson/HBO The premise of HBO’s Lanterns, the latest entry into the current DC universe, seems very grounded. Very “oh we’re just some cops who happen to have superpowers.” You might say gritty, if we’re not all collectively tired of that word. (Are we not? I am.) And yet, last year it was announced that Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner would be among the Green Lanterns appearing in the show. As anyone who saw Superman knows, Guy Gardner is not serious. Guy Gardner is most certainly not gritty. He uses his powers to create giant oven mitts and insists on calling his reluctant peers the Justice Gang. Also, the hair. The hair is deeply not serious. So how’s he in the show? It’s a matter of timelines: Lanterns, it turns out, has two. In a new Entertainment Weekly piece, showrunner Chris Mundy explains a few more details about the series, which begins in 2016 in the wake of a shooting in Rushville, Nebraska. While Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) is convinced the shooting involved aliens, the local sheriff (Kelly Macdonald) has her doubts. But there’s another time period to the series: 2026. Mundy is coy about exactly what happens a decade later, saying only that there’s a “second mystery.” The events of Superman take place between Lanterns’ two timelines. What exactly this means for Guy is less than clear, though Mundy says he’ll “be in the show a few different times.” Mundy also gets into an interesting bit of background about the role of mentors in the show: Hal is a reluctant mentor to new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), who was chosen not by the Green Lantern ring—like all the other Lanterns—but by the Guardians of the Universe, the founders of the Lantern Corps. For reasons, one presumes, though EW says only, “They felt they had just cause.” But Hal’s own mentor, Thaal Sinestro, turned bad. “We talked a lot about programming and parenting and training…What did Hal take away from Sinestro that was good or bad? It brings up a lot of interesting worries,” Mundy says. Lanterns premieres on August 16 on HBO and HBO Max.[end-mark] The post <i>Lanterns</i> Showrunner Explains How His Show Fits Into the Current DCU Timeline appeared first on Reactor.