The second trailer for HBO's Lanterns confirms what the first one suggested: this isn't your standard superhero show. James Gunn's DC Universe is treating Green Lantern like True Detective with power rings, and if it works, it could redefine what superhero television can be.

Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre star as Hal Jordan and John Stewart, respectively, in what's being positioned as a crime thriller that happens to involve intergalactic cops. The casting of Laura Linney in a supporting role reinforces the prestige TV credentials. These aren't actors you hire for spectacle - they're dramatic heavy-lifters.

Here's what Gunn is doing that's smart: he's applying genre frameworks to superhero properties instead of letting the superhero genre dictate everything. Lanterns is a detective show. The Penguin was a mob drama. Peacemaker was a workplace comedy. By treating DC characters as starting points rather than constraints, Gunn is finding stories that don't require you to have read 60 years of comics.

Compare this to the Arrowverse or even the MCU's Disney+ shows, which mostly stuck to superhero conventions with different coats of paint. Lanterns looks like it could air on HBO without the Green Lantern branding and still work as a noir thriller. That's the test of whether you're using a character properly - can the story stand without the IP?

The True Detective and Watchmen comparisons are apt. Both shows proved that superheroes (or in True Detective's case, the structure of myth and investigation) work best when treated as vessels for exploring darker, more complex themes. Gunn seems to understand this in a way that Hollywood's previous DC attempts did not.

There's risk here, of course. Core comic fans might reject a Green Lantern show that prioritizes mood over cosmic mythology. General audiences might not show up for a superhero show marketed as prestige TV. But that's the gamble worth taking. The alternative is another decade of content that looks and feels the same.