HBO‘s DC series Lanterns has found its Hal Jordan in Emmy winner Kyle Chandler. The Friday Night Lights and Godzilla franchise star is set to play the legendary member of the Green Lantern Corps.

Lanterns is described as having a gritty, True Detective vibe as it focuses on Jordan reluctantly mentoring a younger Lantern, John Stewart. The story sees the two characters investigating an Earth-bound murder with larger implications.

Hailing from Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen) and comics writer Tom King, Lanterns scored a straight-to-series order this summer after years trapped in development hell. The three are co-writing and exec producing the series.

As we reported at the time: “The news comes after an almost five-year-long development process at HBO Max, as they were originally developing the series with producer Greg Berlanti, the mastermind of the DC Arrowverse on The CW and one of the writers on the ill-fated, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively-starring 2011 Green Lantern feature film. Initially, the series was going to centre on Guy Gardner and Alan Scott, with Seth Grahame-Smith coming aboard as writer and showrunner, even writing a full season’s worth of scripts for the show.

“With a creative overhaul in 2022, however, Grahame-Smith’s vision was scrapped and the powers that be chose to refocus the series around John Stewart, another member of the Lantern Corps and the first Black superhero to appear in DC Comics.

“We’re thrilled to bring this seminal DC title to HBO with Chris, Damon and Tom at the helm,” DC Heads James Gunn and Peter Safran said in a statement. “John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with Superman.””

Casting is ongoing, though the series is looking to begin filming next January in Atlanta, so we should find out soon who will star opposite Kyle Chandler.