5 Shows Like Lanterns to Watch Next for DC Mystery Fans

With James Gunn guiding the wider DC Universe after years of delivering standout comic book projects, DC’s television slate is beginning to look far more confident — and HBO has played a major role in that turnaround. One of those breakthrough DCU series deserves its own spotlight, but it was later joined in 2026 by “Lanterns,” a bold new spin on Green Lantern lore led by Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, with Chris Mundy steering the show as showrunner.

Mundy created the series with Damon Lindelof — a name that comes up again later — and acclaimed comics writer and artist Tom King. Together, they shape “Lanterns” into a tense, entertaining, and unexpectedly shadowy story centered on Hal Jordan, played by Chandler. Hal is a veteran member of the Green Lantern Corps, the galaxy-spanning force of peacekeepers powered by their iconic rings, and he is ready to step away from the job. Retirement, however, has one final condition: he must identify and train his successor. That successor turns out to be John Stewart, played by Pierre, whose path into the Corps is unusual. Instead of being selected by a ring, John is personally chosen by the Guardians of the Universe.

“Lanterns” has often been pitched in shorthand as “‘True Detective’ with aliens,” but its DNA stretches beyond that easy comparison. The series shares creative and tonal qualities with several other standout shows — most of them HBO titles — ranging from inventive comic book adaptations to character-driven buddy dramas and one of Kyle Chandler’s most memorable television performances. If “Lanterns” has you hooked, these five shows are well worth adding to your watchlist.

Remember Damon Lindelof from just a moment ago? After making his name on “Lost” and earning major praise for HBO’s “The Leftovers,” Lindelof returned to the network in 2019 with “Watchmen,” a daring limited series based on the legendary DC comic by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Rather than recreate the source material panel for panel — the route Zack Snyder took with his divisive 2009 film — Lindelof crafted a sequel-style continuation. At its center is Regina King’s Angela Abar, a Tulsa police detective who fights crime after hours under the masked identity of Sister Night.

Tulsa is not just a backdrop in “Watchmen”; it is the key to the entire story. Lindelof’s adaptation powerfully folds real American history into the world of superheroes, opening with a dramatization of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in U.S. history. That historical trauma is deeply connected to Angela’s family story, while the series also brings back familiar figures from the original “Watchmen” universe. Jeremy Irons appears as Adrian Veidt, also known as Ozymandias, and Jean Smart plays Laurie Blake, formerly the costumed hero Silk Spectre. Doctor Manhattan also plays a crucial role, revealed through Angela’s husband Cal Abar, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in the part.

“Watchmen” remains one of the strongest comic book television series HBO has ever produced, combining mystery, social commentary, spectacle, and character drama with remarkable confidence. For fans of “Lanterns,” it is practically essential viewing — especially given Lindelof’s creative connection to both projects.

After “Game of Thrones” ended its HBO run in May 2019 with a finale that left many viewers frustrated, it would have been easy to assume audiences had moved on from Westeros, its power struggles, battlefield carnage, and fire-breathing dragons. HBO, however, kept building. “House of the Dragon,” the first major prequel and spin-off, premiered in 2022 and explored the brutal Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons — a conflict full of betrayal, grief, and bloodshed that echoes through the history leading toward Daenerys Targaryen’s story in “Game of Thrones.” So why bring up Westeros in a conversation about “Lanterns”?

Because the 2026 “Game of Thrones” spin-off “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is, at heart, a buddy comedy-drama — much like “Lanterns” — and it works beautifully. Created by showrunner Ira Parker alongside George R.R. Martin, the series adapts Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas and brings a lighter, more intimate energy to the world of Westeros. The story follows the towering hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall, played by Peter Claffey, and his small but secretly noble squire Aegon “Egg” Targaryen, played by Dexter Sol Ansell, as they travel through a realm still shaped by Targaryen power. If the dynamic at the center of “Lanterns” is what pulled you in, keep browsing HBO Max, queue up “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” and settle in.

If you only know Kyle Chandler from “Lanterns,” somehow, you need to make your way through his full body of work … and aside from movies like “Game Night” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” where Chandler plays phenomenal supporting roles, Friday Night Lights” is a true must-watch. Chandler leads the series — which is adapted from the 1990 nonfiction book “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream” by H.G. Bissinger and, to a lesser extent, Peter Berg’s 2004 movie by Berg himself and showrunner Jason Katims — as Coach Eric Taylor, who’s in charge of the massively successful high school football team the Dillon Panthers.

During the show’s pilot, Eric, his wife Tami (Connie Britton), and daughter Julie (Aimee Teagarden) are horrified to watch as star quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter) suffers from an injury to his spinal cord that leaves him permanently unable to walk. As Coach Taylor tries to keep the spirits of Jason’s fellow Panthers — like fullback Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), new quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), and Matt’s best friend Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons), as well as Jason’s cheerleader girlfriend Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) — high, he also deals with the ups and downs of his home life and tries to hold his own against the intense Dillon community, all of whom are intensely invested in the Panthers. “Friday Night Lights” is more than just a great showcase for Chandler’s talent and range, but it’s also just an excellent show that featured future megastars like Plemons and even Michael B. Jordan early in their careers.

The really cool thing about “The Penguin,” Lauren LeFranc’s HBO acclaimed and award-winning miniseries that dropped in 2024, is that you don’t need to care about DC Comics at all to enjoy this gripping, gritty crime thriller that sees Colin Farrell reprising his role as the villainous Oswald “Oz” Cobb — also known as the Penguin in Gotham — that he originated in the Matt Reeves Batman film in 2022. Obviously, the experience is deepened if you are familiar with the Penguin and his origin in DC Comics, but thanks to LeFranc’s thoughtful storytelling, “The Penguin” isn’t explicitly tied to the villain’s lore and is, instead, a fascinating character study of both Oz and his surprising new enemy, Cristin Milioti’s vengeful Sofia Gigante, née Falcone.

Sofia’s name change actually happens partway through “The Penguin” when, after she’s released from a forced stay at the Arkham State Hospital, is furious at her crime boss father Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong) for putting her there in the first place. As Sofia sets out to regain power of the criminal underworld of Gotham, she finds a natural nemesis in Oz, who wants to maintain his own grip on the city’s seedy underbelly while also looking after his ill mother Frances Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell) and working alongside his new young mentee and acolyte Victor “Vic” Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz). “Lanterns” is considerably more lighthearted than “The Penguin,” but both of them are fresh, exciting, and well-done looks at comic book characters you know and love.

When it comes to official DCU TV projects overseen, in his capacity as the studio head, by James Gunn, there are only two as of this writing: “Lanterns” and “Peacemaker.” “Peacemaker,” which counts Gunn himself as its showrunner, premiered on HBO in early 2022 with wrestler turned actor John Cena portraying the titular Peacemaker. As the super-patriotic Chris Smith, who masquerades as the vigilante known as Peacemaker and is forced under duress to join the organization A.R.G.U.S. (Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans, which is helmed by Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller), Cena is his reliably charismatic and hilarious self, and he’s joined by quite a cast.

“Orange is the New Black” standout Danielle Brooks shows up as Waller’s daughter Leota Adebayo, “Harry Potter” and “Game of Thrones” bit player Freddie Stroma gets a bigger showcase as Adrian Chase, a mentee of Peacemaker’s who uses the name Vigilante, and comedic secret weapon Steve Agee is on hand as John Economos, an A.R.G.U.S strategist who helps the gang fight various enemies. “Peacemaker” is a loud, delightful, and incredibly audacious series that goes to some seriously wild places during its Season 2 finale, and if this show and “Lanterns” are the future of the DCU on the small screen, then that future certainly looks bright.

“Lanterns,” along with all of these shows save for “Friday Night Lights,” is streaming on HBO Max. As for “Friday Night Lights,” that’s on Paramount+.