How Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan Costume Compares To Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern & The Comics

The newest trailer for the DCU’s upcoming series Lanterns has given Green Lantern fans their first good look at Hal Jordan’s (Kyle Chandler) suit; here’s how it compares to Ryan Reynolds’ suit and the outfit from the comics. The DCU’s next live-action television show, Lanterns, is still about three months away from its August 16 release date, but it has already drawn criticism from fans.

After the first trailer for Lanterns revealed footage of the show, some longtime followers of Green Lantern criticized the show’s depiction of Hal Jordan’s suit. In a brief frame, the suit could be seen hanging from Hal’s closet, and it looked to be primarily brown and grey instead of the traditional all-green suit. Some fans even said that the infamous Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie had a better suit than Lanterns.

Luckily, the newest trailer for Lanterns has provided a much better image of Hal Jordan’s suit as he’s actually wearing it, which makes it much easier to compare to previous iterations of the suit. One shot from the trailer also put the suit into a new lighting environment, which has provided a much better look at the actual colors of the suit than the previous lowly-lit shots have. Now, we can finally compare Lanterns to Green Lantern 2011 and the comics.

Lanterns’ Suit Is Practical & More Grounded Than Ryan Reynolds’

via HBO Max

The biggest difference between Kyle Chandler’s Green Lantern suit and Ryan Reynolds’ is the fact that Lanterns is using a practical piece of clothing. Reynolds’ Green Lantern was heavily criticized for its fully digital suit, complete with CGI mask. The visual effects left quite a bit to be desired, and as a result, Reynolds’ Hal Jordan sometimes looked like a real head floating on top of a CGI suit. Lanterns, on the other hand, took the extreme opposite, and Chandler is actually physically wearing the suit.

A practical suit does look better than the CGI one from Green Lantern, but it also has some story implications for Lanterns. Normally and in Green Lantern 2011, Hal’s suit is a construct made from the same willpower energy his ring creates. In Lanterns, that doesn’t seem to be the case; it seems to be an actual garment Hal physically puts on rather than conjuring up at will. Not only is it a practical costume in the show’s production, but an earlier trailer showed the suit physically hanging up in his closet within the story of the series.

The main function of Lanterns‘ suit seems to be giving the series a more grounded and realistic quality than Green Lantern 2011 had. Chandler’s Hal seems more like a classic superhero and a lawman than the uncanny and otherworldly version Reynolds depicted. That would track with the overall tone Lanterns‘ creators have publicly said they’re going for, which is along the lines of a murder mystery akin to True Detective.

There’s also quite a bit of difference in the coloration of each of Hal’s suits. Green Lantern 2011 put Reynolds in an almost exclusively green suit with very bright hues. Lanterns, on the other hand, has opted for more muted shades of green, and far less of the color in general. Certain highlights appear to be a very dark shade of green, but the majority of the suit’s chest and shoulders appear gold and brown.

It’s also worth noting that the gold and brown colors in Lanterns‘ suit briefly appeared to be yellow in one shot of the trailer, pictured above. As longtime Green Lantern fans will note, yellow is heavily associated with fear, the Sinestro Corps, and Parallax, the embodiment of fear and the natural enemy of the Green Lantern Corps. Given Sinestro’s confirmed appearance in Lanterns (via Variety), the coloration of Hal’s suit could be a rather significant story detail.

Lanterns’ Suit Also Takes Inspiration From The Green Lantern Comics

As for how Lanterns compares to the Green Lantern comics, there’s quite a bit more variation. Hal’s suit in Lanterns is significantly different from the older and most famous depictions of the suit in the comics. The most recognizable Green Lantern suit is a spandex-like outfit that’s largely green along the chest, shoulders, and boots with black accents along the obliques and thighs. John Stewart wears a similar but more black version of this suit in many animated appearances, most notably Justice League Unlimited.

Despite its obvious differences from the classic Green Lantern suit, Lanterns is actually taking inspiration directly from a comic run. Kyle Chandler’s suit looks quite similar to the Earth One Green Lantern Corps outfits, drawn by Gabriel Hardman. The Earth One outfit was closer to a motorbike jacket, complete with padded sections along the shoulders and arms, than the spandex-like suit Green Lantern is most often associated with.

Lanterns also does have a few differences from even the Earth One costume, however. Hal’s costume in that series of comics was primarily black and white with a large green logo on the chest. Lanterns‘ suit is far more brown and gold, and the green of the logo is much less pronounced. At any rate, it’s clear that the DCU and Lanterns are trying to establish a new era for Green Lantern, and he has a new suit to match.

Release Date

August, 2026

Network

HBO

Showrunner

Chris Mundy

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  Aaron Pierre

  John Stewart

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  Kelly Macdonald

  Sheriff Kerry