Writers Tom King and Damon Lindelof are aware that making a superhero series today requires more than spectacle. With Lanterns, the creators wanted to retain the awe and scale associated with Green Lantern while ensuring that the world, and the people inhabiting it, felt tangible enough for audiences to connect with.
For King, that meant going back to something as basic as making viewers “feel the grass”.
For Lindelof, however, grounding Lanterns was not simply about making its superhero elements more believable. It was also about ensuring the series could appeal to viewers who may not have grown up reading comic books. “For the people who love comic books, it’s very inviting, but for the people who don’t have that same childhood that I did or the same affinity, it can be very off-putting. It can feel like it’s childish or ridiculous. The answer, he believes, lies in the characters. “It doesn’t matter if they’re wizards at Hogwarts or they’re trying to get the throne in Westeros or they’re fighting over a magic ring that can manifest their imaginations.
“For someone who was raised on a steady diet of comic books and has loved comic books all of his life, I also think that that phrase ‘it’s a comic book show’ can cut both ways,” he says. If you don’t care about the people, the show is not going to work,” Lindelof says.
