{"id":480701,"date":"2026-03-17T17:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/480701\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T17:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:17:11","slug":"damon-lindelof-breaks-silence-on-hbos-lanterns-fandom-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/480701\/","title":{"rendered":"Damon Lindelof Breaks Silence on HBO’s ‘Lanterns’ Fandom Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDamon Lindelof<\/a> wrote a heartfelt open letter on Instagram to the Green Lantern<\/a> fandom community in the wake of a comment he made on a podcast getting some backlash. <\/p>\n

\n\tOur story yesterday gave the detailed version<\/a> of the (kind of silly) controversy surrounding the Emmy winner\u2019s upcoming HBO<\/a> series Lanterns<\/a>, which takes a grounded approach to adapting the Green Lantern Corps comics into a prestige TV show. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut basically: Lindelof was on a podcast a year ago where he explained why the show wasn\u2019t called Green Lantern, and joked, \u201cIt\u2019s called Lanterns, because we all agreed that the \u2018Green\u2019 was stupid, so now it\u2019s just Lanterns.\u201d Then the show\u2019s teaser trailer was released which contained a downright scandalous lack of green in its color palette. In fact, it\u2019s rather sordidly beige. Lindelof\u2019s comment was recirculated with some fans growing suspicious that the show wouldn\u2019t be faithful to its source material.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen, on Sunday, acclaimed Green Lantern comic book writer Grant Morrison weighed in, writing on Substack: \u201cTV writer\/producer Damon Lindelof\u2019s comments notwithstanding, the \u2018Green\u2019 in \u2018Green Lantern(s)\u2019 is not \u2018stupid.\u2019 Why does a writer attach himself to this kind of narrative if he thinks it\u2019s fundamentally \u2018stupid\u2019? \u2026 What is this jockish dismissal of superhero conventions intended to prove anyway? \u2026 The only people who give a fuck about the\u00a0Lanterns\u00a0TV series are Green Lantern fans. Why alienate them at the start?\u00a0That\u00a0feels more like \u2018stupid.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt this point, Lindelof \u2014 who, again, has plenty of experience with receiving online love (Lost,\u00a0The Leftovers, Watchmen) and online backlash (Prometheus,\u00a0Lost\u00a0again) \u2014 decided it was best to say something. <\/p>\n

\n\tLindelof posted a photo of himself (below) from his first Comic-Con appearance wearing a very green Green Lantern T-shirt, and wrote: \u201cI have upset Grant Morrison, which means I have now pissed off MOST of the brilliant British\/Scottish comics writers that I grew up idolizing. To quote the bard (Otis Redding), this is nobody\u2019s fault but mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tContinued Lindelof: \u201cI made a dumb joke on a comedy podcast. I\u2019m not going to bob and weave about context, the joke was dumb, the fandom is not. I owe them an explanation and a genuine reflection of my actual feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe very first time I appeared on a ComicCon panel was for the Lost pilot, back in the summer of 2004. I wore my favorite T-shirt as I had long grown out of my favorite underoos, those being the uniform of Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Sector 2814. For a quiet, uncoordinated kid, there was nothing cooler than a hero whose superpower was his imagination. And green is not stupid, it is my lifelong favorite color and I have a questionnaire that I filled out in third grade to prove it. Green is fucking awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMore importantly, it would be a betrayal to everyone I worked for and alongside to say anything other than I was absolutely honored to be a part of the team that manifested the incredible construct that is Lanterns\u2026 because it was. I was sloppy and careless with my words, ironic considering I care so much about Hal, John and the entire Corps. I can and will do better to be worthy of the oath\u2026 until then, I\u2019ll let the show speak for itself and I can\u2019t wait for you all to hear what it has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo there you have it: Lindelof loves the Green Lantern. He loves the color green. The show will have green in it. At some point, a new trailer will be released for Lanterns, which you can bet will also have some splashes of green (probably with a vibe that feels a bit like, \u201cHere\u2019s your damn green, okay?!\u201d). <\/p>\n

\n\tLanterns is released in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Damon Lindelof wrote a heartfelt open letter on Instagram to the Green Lantern fandom community in the wake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,170554,96,109268,1636,90639,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-480701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-damon-lindelof","tag-entertainment","tag-green-lantern","tag-hbo","tag-lanterns","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}