In brief, Hal Jordan was a younger, cocky hot-shot, an excellent place for a superhero to start out, however very troublesome to keep up, particularly if the character makes errors. And, oh boy, does Hal Jordan make errors. Even earlier than his most notorious moments, Hal would often surrender his ring to go discover himself, wandering across the nation as a trucker or a salesman peddling toys and insurance coverage. When paired with liberal loudmouth Inexperienced Arrow within the legendary sequence by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams, Hal was the wet-blanket conservative, a cop continuously berated for his authoritarianism.
Within the ’80s, Hal began courting a 13-year-old. Within the ’90s, he went nuts and killed all the opposite members of the Corps, spending a number of years because the villain Parallax. Then, within the 2000s, retcons defined all that away and Hal was again, making an attempt to be as cool as ever. Not each fan has been prepared to just accept him.
The most recent Lanterns trailer offers us glimpses of Hal in his prime, with a smirking (and mask-less?) Hal Jordan showing on a CRT TV. However Chandler largely performs an older, extra grizzled Hal, a man who has already finished all of it and isn’t so thrilled to be coaching new man John Stewart. That might be a catastrophe, positioning Hal because the outdated canine who nonetheless thinks he’s sizzling stuff, establishing a narrative the place we wish to see the cocky outdated fart get taken down a notch.
However simply take a look at the twinkle in Chandler’s eye when he makes that greenback invoice. Take a look at the arrogance he possesses when effortlessly making a assemble to deflect bullets or standing as much as the native heavies. Chandler even manages to remain charming when Hal condescends to John, making us consider, if just for a second, that perhaps he must be Inexperienced Lantern eternally.
We’re nonetheless a number of months from the Lanterns premiere, so we nonetheless don’t understand how the sequence will hand all of the bizarre components of the Inexperienced Lantern mythos. However not less than we will stay up for Chandler’s tackle Hal Jordan with out the slightest trace of worry.
Lanterns debuts on HBO on August 16, 2026.
