HBO’s New 8-Part Sci-Fi Western Will Be ‘True Detective Meets Watchmen’

By Sofia Martinez · Culture & Entertainment Editor

April 21, 2026· 3 min read

Cathal Gunning

Published Apr 21, 2026, 7:32 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

HBO has a new sci-fi western in the works, and the DC show’s promise to blend **True Detective and Watchmen **_has viewers sitting up and taking notice. It is hard for a comic book adaptation to stand out in the streaming landscape of 2026. Decades after the MCU’s earliest projects hit cinemas, Invincible and The Boys top Prime Video’s most-watched charts, and a bevvy of other mature, subversive, R-rated superhero stories have already deconstructed and reconstructed the genre’s familiar tropes.

In the years since 2016’s Deadpool first proved that R-rated superhero movies and shows could gain a massive mainstream audience and critical acclaim, Deadpool 2, Logan, Joker, and _Deadpool & Wolverine _have all reinforced this reality. Meanwhile, on the small screen, Legion, The Punisher, Harley Quinn, Titans, The Boys, Invincible, 2019’s Watchmen, The Boys Presents: Diabolical, Gen V, and HBOMax’s gritty crime drama _The Penguin _have all proven that a dark, gritty superhero show that pulls no punches could hardly be called a unique innovation in 2026.

As such, HBO’s upcoming detective series Lanterns must do a lot to feel fresh and innovative. Based on the two most popular incarnations of the DC Comics character Green Lantern, John Stewart and Hal Jordan, this highly hyped series follows Creature Commandos and Peacemaker to become the third show in the DCU. Kyle Chandler is set to play Jordan, while Rebel Ridge’s breakout star, Aaron Pierre, plays Stewart as these two versions of the iconic superhero work together to solve a murder on Earth.

HBO's Lanterns Will Be A Cross Between True Detective And Watchmen

_ Aaron Pierre standing in a room in Lanterns

Although Green Lantern is an intergalactic peacekeeper, Lanterns_ will not be a campy superhero show filled with aliens and trips to far-flung planets. Even more so than the earlier DC series Titans, the detective drama looks like a gritty, brutal, and thoroughly grounded series that owes more to True Detective than_ DC Super Hero Girls_. Meanwhile, the presence of controversial screenwriter Damon Lindelof, who penned HBO’s loose 2019 re-imagining of Watchmen, makes it more obvious than ever that this series will be far from camp.

In Maureen Ryan’s 2023 non-fiction book, Burn It Down, Lindelof and fellow Lost showrunner Carlton Cuse were accused of racism and toxic mismanagement during the show's production by star Harold Perrineau, whose allegations were later confirmed by numerous members of the writer’s room. Despite this, Lindelof created Lanterns for HBO alongside comic book writer and former CIA officer Tom King. As such, viewers can likely expect Lanterns to include a lot of the same downbeat, grim stylistic choices as Lindelof’s Watchmen.

How Lanterns Will Be Different From Other DCU Projects

_ Sheriff Kerry in Lanterns

Since its inception, HBO’s Lanterns_ has been pitched as a project inspired by the anthology crime drama_ True Detective_ and Apple TV’s dark spy series Slow Horses. As such, viewers can likely expect that the DCU show will be a heavy, harsh drama that steers well clear of the goofiness found in 2011’s much-mocked Green Lantern movie reboot. Chandler and Pierre’s biggest small-screen roles to date are lead parts in Friday Night Lights and The Underground Railroad, respectively, further reinforcing the sense that this will be a mature drama.