Before Kyle Chandler became Coach Taylor, before Bloodline, before Godzilla and now before taking on the Green Lantern mantle, Chicago already had him.
Chandler was born in Buffalo, New York, but grew up in suburban Lake Forest before his family moved to Georgia when he was 11. Years later, one of the roles that first made him a television star brought him right back to Chicago: CBS’ Early Edition, which ran from 1996 to 2000 and filmed extensively around the city.
As Gary Hobson, Chandler played a Chicago man who mysteriously received the next day’s Chicago Sun-Times every morning and used it to prevent disasters before they happened. The series shot at real Chicago locations and helped establish Chandler as a leading man long before his Emmy-winning run on Friday Night Lights.
Now Chandler is stepping into another defining role – one he initially wasn’t sure he wanted.
In HBO’s Lanterns, premiering Aug. 16, Chandler stars as veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan opposite Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, a younger recruit who must work with Jordan to investigate a murder in rural Nebraska. Rather than lean heavily into traditional superhero spectacle, creators Chris Mundy (Ozark, Criminal Minds), Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen) and Tom King (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic, Human Target comic) have built the eight-episode series as a grounded mystery with noir and buddy-cop DNA.
For Chandler, that was part of the appeal.
He told the Television Academy that he never grew up immersed in comic books and initially set the Lanterns pilot aside after first reading it. The project finally clicked when he read the script aloud at home with his wife, Kathryn, and daughter, Sydney.
When they finished, Chandler said, both women immediately told him he had to take the part.
That reaction helped convince him that Lanterns might belong alongside the handful of projects he considers truly special. Chandler singled out Friday Night Lights, Bloodline and Early Edition as three previous “lightning-in-a-bottle” experiences in his career.
He now considers Lanterns the fourth.
A Green Lantern who feels more detective than superhero
That assessment makes more sense once you understand what HBO and DC Studios are trying to do.
The series comes from Mundy, Lindelof and King, with James Gunn and Peter Safran among the executive producers. It represents the latest television chapter in the new DC Universe following Peacemaker and The Penguin.
But the comic-book elements are almost secondary to the mystery. Hal Jordan is presented as an aging intergalactic cop who knows his time at the center of things may be ending. John Stewart is the younger Marine-turned-Lantern learning both the job and the man who came before him.
Together, they are pulled into a murder investigation in small-town Nebraska. Mundy’s background on shows including Ozark and True Detective: Night Country helps explain the tone. Lindelof brings the world-building instincts of Lost and Watchmen, while King provides deep knowledge of DC mythology.
The result is closer to True Detective with power rings than a conventional superhero adventure. Early reviews have similarly emphasized the chemistry between Chandler and Pierre and the series’ grounded, character-driven approach.
Lindelof said Chandler was essentially the writers’ prototype for Hal from the beginning.
They wanted someone capable of carrying cynicism, humor, nobility and a slightly weathered quality — someone who could still feel formidable while also believably contemplating the end of his run.
Their immediate thought was Chandler. Their second thought was that they would never get him.
They did.
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Chandler and Pierre find the chemistry
Pierre’s John Stewart provides the counterweight. The actor, whose recent work includes Rebel Ridge, Genius: MLK/X and The Underground Railroad, plays Stewart as a former Marine who combines physical intensity with an introspective, artistic side.
For Pierre, the role also has personal meaning.
He told the Television Academy that John Stewart was one of the superheroes who made him feel represented as a young Black man and showed him that characters who looked like him could stand alongside, or exceed, the most powerful heroes in the genre.
That connection became important to a series that depends less on visual effects than on the evolving relationship between its two leads.
The chemistry reportedly became obvious during production.
One scene found Chandler and Pierre talking across the roof of a car after a long day of shooting. Mundy recalled watching the exchange and realizing the pairing would work.
Chandler described their developing rhythm almost like two fighters testing each other, finding weak spots, learning where to jab and figuring out how their characters could irritate one another.
Pierre described the same experience as entering a creative “flow state.”
That push and pull appears to be the engine of the series.
From Chicago newspaper hero to intergalactic cop
For Chicago viewers, there is something satisfying about Chandler returning to another role built around a fundamentally decent man trying to prevent bad things from happening.
Gary Hobson didn’t have a power ring.
He had tomorrow’s newspaper, a mysterious orange cat and an obligation to do something about what he knew. Hal Jordan operates on a significantly larger canvas, but Chandler appears to be bringing many of the qualities that have defined his best work: authority without swagger, weariness without defeat and the sense that responsibility matters even when carrying it becomes exhausting.
That throughline stretches back to Early Edition.
The CBS series became part of Chicago television history during its four-season run, frequently using the city itself rather than trying to disguise it as somewhere else. Chandler’s Gary raced through downtown streets, landmarks and neighborhoods every week trying to stop tomorrow’s tragedy today.
Three decades later, Chandler is again playing a man tasked with protecting people, although this time his jurisdiction extends considerably beyond the Loop.
And unlike his younger self, Chandler apparently needed some convincing before putting on the ring.
Maybe that hesitation is precisely why the casting works. HBO didn’t need someone who had spent his entire life dreaming about being Green Lantern.
It needed Kyle Chandler.
Lanterns premieres Sunday, Aug. 16 on HBO and HBO Max.
