Will Smith - GLP: Alright, we are live officially. That's good. Got it up on my phone. Here's what's gonna happen. The last time, the last two times, I've been live. Your boy got some super chats, and I was very late to reading them. Or in the last one, missed the super chat completely, and that is not my intention. Anytime somebody drops a super chat or donates money to the channel. those take precedent over the other comments they should pop up on screen. But the way Riverside works is they don't always show up. So I missed it. So now I'm gonna have my Android phone out. Got the stream pulled up. So if there's any super chats, I will never miss them again. And apologies on the last ones, but I I'm in contact with all you folks about you know some prizes for the super chats from the last couple lives. Now, why are we here today? We're here today Because DC, HBO, Warner, everybody's dropping some numbers for lanterns, and they are numbers that would appear to have, you know, brightest day context behind them. People are very, very pumped. A lot of people tuned in. We knew viewership was probably pretty decent. We knew that the ratings through like Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, all that was pretty good from the critic side. Fan scores were up super high, and then a couple grifter videos dropped yesterday. And it dropped the fan scores down a little bit, but not the end of the world. But as you can see here on my screen, this would be the lanterns. This is from Variety. They put out the official numbers. And it says Lanterns haters are going to be green with envy. The series premiere of the DC show a studio show has racked up 9.3 million views in the first three days of availability across HBO and HBO Max. That represents the biggest premiere for a DC Studio show on HBO Max to date and one of the top five premieres on the platform overall. Per HBO, the show pulled in 6.6 million viewers in the US alone in that three-day time frame. Then they went on to compare it to Penguin because Penguin's a show that got great viewership. It was critically acclaimed. A lot of people love it. So how does it compare? Lanterns, again. Did nine point three million views in three days. The penguin did ten point four million viewers across the same platforms in eleven days. So eleven days for ten point four million viewers for the penguin. Lanterns does nine point three in just three days, which is insane. Lanterns only needs 1.2 million views over the next seven days to surpass what the penguin did as like the top. DC viewership show on HBO. they make mention at the end of this article, while not a DC show, they compare it to Welcome to Dairy, which had hit 5.7 million viewers in the first three days last year. I don't know if 5.7 is like their overall or if that was US only. But in the top five, I'll share my screen and show you that this other person, I believe, has it. completely mapped out and correct. And this would be this tweet here. Go ahead and get that pulled up. And then let me close out of that variety article. And then just fix the screen. Okay, here, this person, a brand new day. The at is when Batmen Fly on X. It says top five debuts in the US estimated But I think that this is legit because I looked up the numbers myself. House of the Dragon, obviously, number one. It's the big show that they have. two was The Last of Us, which a lot of people loved, especially season one. People were just so excited to see the last. I tuned in day one as well, as soon as it dropped. It was beautifully crafted. I thought it was very, very well done. After that, you have a knight of the seven kingdoms, then lanterns, and then it. Welcome to Dairy. Of which, again, just gonna put it out there after Lanterns embargo was lifted and it forced Marvel to push the D23 back an hour. The other good news from the day was that after Lanterns was, you know, had the embargo lifted and the reviews are coming in pretty glowing, they got to announce that it, welcome to dairy, greenlit for season two, boom. So welcome to dairy, good season two. Lanterns has even better viewership numbers than that right now. How close was Lanterns to passing a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? I'm glad you asked. If I can share another screen with you, if you'll allow me to. Here I can show you that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms did 9.5 million viewers. I think it says US, but it's weird because this that was for the finale. US viewers for the finale. but lower in the arc, you say that it's up forty-two percent from the series premiere, which manage six point seven million US cross-platform in the same time frame. So you have Lanterns doing six point six million, and a knight of the seven kingdoms did six point seven. It was that close. Lanterns is that close to being able to pass a game of thrones. IP show on HBO, which is again the whole thing is just bonkers insane that we are here. I did take the time earlier today because I saw a tweet where somebody was like, if the numbers are good, HBO will put them out later today in an article. So I was like, just so I know, when when does DC normally or or HBO normally talk about the viewership numbers from like the penguin? Or Peacemaker or whatever. And I assumed that it was like five days after it comes out, that's when the article would drop about the first four day numbers, because then they would have them all. But the days are all over the place. for some of them it was like it's a Sunday night show, like Penguin, but the first three day or first four day didn't come out until the following Monday. Like eight days after it came out, that's when that article finally dropped. Which is crazy. And then like Peacemaker doesn't have a ton of numbers around it. I'll show you what we are able to see. But like, boys, the show has great reviews. Word of mouth has really been phenomenal. Like my algorithm has changed so much in the past like three weeks. It's gone from a lot of doomers just chiming in, telling people that lanterns was gonna be terrible. The embargo lifts, the reviews come out. The algorithm starts to get more positive because the reviews are mostly positive. Then they drop the first five minutes. And then a lot of people were like, shoot. We may have judged you too harshly too quickly. And then Sunday hit. And it was like a turning of the tide. When Sunday dropped and people actually got to see Lanterns, episode one in its entirety, with all the leaks, the rumors about what would happen, how it plays out. The chatter after, you know, that for me, it comes out at nine and then at ten PM, doing a stream with Ralph. At eleven, I was doing my own stream and like the chat was never dead, it was never slow. I go to Reddit, Discord, wherever I was, like so many people were talking about lanterns. It was just such a high for me. It felt so good. You know, you invest in I don't wanna call like Green Lantern a brand, but you get so attached to these characters, these stories, and you really, especially after the twenty eleven movie, you just want something to come out and be good enough that people are able to enjoy it. Without like everybody mocking it all the time. And one episode into lanterns and it feels like for sure we got that here. when not comparing to I'm not comparing to a knight of the seven kingdoms. Again, so where where were this place? Lanterns, this places lanterns at like the number four premiere on HBO HBO Max all time. And you're talking about 9.3 million to a knight of the seven kingdoms, nine point five million. Like it was so close to being number three all time. Which again, look in the grand scheme of things, especially especially recently with all like the DCU is dead chatter. That was happening. The DCU's dead, but here we are. Boom. Massive numbers. Reviews came out great. Chatter's been great. Buzz online great. Trending every day I log into socials on Threads and X. you know, if I post a story on YouTube, it's getting cut like it's been the best time. It has been the best time. I had some others pulled up, like The Watchmen. Watchmen viewership. I love The Watchmen. It's one of my favorite hero shows, period. And Damon Lindelof is part of it, so no knock on them. But the Watchmen's number is like when the finale came out, it had like a little over one point something million people that tuned in. And Hollywood Reporter put out an article that said basically about seven million people were watching The Watchmen per episode. So seven million there per episode. That's through the finale. Lanterns has blown that out of the water. It's not close. but again, no shot there. what was the other one? People asked about creature commandos. Creature commandos never charted, so that's not anything that we you know have like good data for. There's like a couple side articles written by like comic book news that talk about the total number of minutes watched. but I think it was US only and it would have been like four the the math on it would have been like four hundred thousand people tuned into creature commandos. But those are animated and it's much shorter episodes and I feel like people just kinda binge and blow through those with quickness. It's not the same thing as like the impact that a live action can make. and then the last one, just numbers wise to go over, would be Peacemaker. How did that do compare to Peacemaker? You know, another popular show, this one by James Gunn, where Lanterns is with Tom King, Chris Mundy, and Damon Lindelof. Yes, we do have like names attached to it, like James Gunn's, but He's not really like on set. He's not doing the day-to-day. It's kind of like you can't blame James Gunn for Supergirl, but you also can't like give him the the the success and the praise for lanterns. Like he hired those teams and he let them do what they gotta do. But listen, listen, right now, I want you to listen, Mr. Harmless. Mr. Harmless just dropped a super chat for two dollars. Thank you so much. I told y'all. I told y'all I was never gonna miss another super chat again. And he just dropped it in and says, can't wait for episode two. Brother, I loved episode one, and I loved the the community after episode one. Just the amount of people talking about the show, giving it criticisms, but also giving it its praise where it's due. And also, weirdly enough, I was not expecting this part of the fandom, but To see like the amount of memes that have come from the first episode of Lanterns has been crazy to me. Whether it's the Aaron Pierre like this, the one where Hal's interrogating and he's about to drop like the Harry Potter line or the Barack Obama line, and he's like, That's you're a rural Nebraskan and this is all you have to say because the guy's brain is like cued into like a Wikipedia type answer as an alien rather than like Knowing the the nitty-gritty of the details. When you factor in a banger of a first episode, with all the buzz it had online, plus the review scores. Plus now this, we're getting the viewership numbers and it is amazing. A top five show on the platform. Let's it's a top four. Top four premiere on the platform all time. I think there's a lot of shows, most shows. I would say ninety percent of shows. As the season goes on, viewership goes down a little bit, a little bit, a little bit until you get to the finale and then there's like a little bit of a tick up. But for the most part, it's like episode one is the big one to start. The finale is like the second biggest one, and then in the middle it's in between. I think possibly with the buzz behind the ratings with the viewership with trending memes every day online. I think episode two just might be able to pull in more viewership than episode one. And then that gives us even if you more friends on the internet to have these chats with and go over and do breakdowns and lives and just It is such a fun time. Like Ralph from Lanterns Live, who's in the chat, we say it all the time, like leading up to Lanterns, like what a great time to be alive as a Green Lantern fan. You have a live-action show coming out. We have an animated show coming out. We also now know Guy Gardner's gonna be in the animated Mr. Miracle series. on top of that, we also have Green Lantern, the comic. We have Green Lantern Core, the comic, and we have absolute Green Lantern. And then they also have had these little one-offs they do with like Tales from the Green Lantern Corps with Guy Gardner or you know Star Sapphire had a special where she was like hanging out, sort of being a front runner of one of like the Justice League issues. We have had so much great stuff come our way over like the past year, especially as Green Lantern fans. Like it is You know, it sounds weird to be like, what a time to be alive, but seriously, like what a What a time to be alive. Let me go ahead and get to some comments before we get back to Peacemaker's numbers. We'll break those down. y'all were hitting it early. Ralph started out with the brightest day, and Grim chined in with blackest night. Ralph said numbers are good. Yeah, I don't think I mean you and I were both high on this going in. You got to see stuff. I got to hear stuff from some of the trades who had seen it early. Everything I was hearing made me feel like this is for sure. Going to be a good and also sometimes great show. But you always worry like, but what is the viewership gonna be like? What is the online fandom gonna be like? Is it just gonna be, you know, a toxic battlefield all day? Or is it gonna be friendly and fun? And I have found, at least for my algorithm, we've been having a blasty blast, whether that's on R slash Lanterns TV series. You know, it's the spot to talk about the show, or R slash Green Lantern. But it's like different demographics. I think R slash Green Lantern caters more towards like people who have been knee deep in the comics for a long time. R slash lanterns TV series has a lot of people in it who are just watching the show to watch the show and learning Green Lantern for the first time. the home of DCU Discord server has been a great place to chat about the show. But also just reading the comments over like the Lantern cast, you know, Spotify and YouTube videos, reading the comments from Ralph, who was just live earlier today on Lanterns Live. It's just been awesome, like seeing their reaction in general. Grimm says, Snyder cultist review bombing on IMDB. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's weird to see like the show get so much praise and the rating hit a certain mark, and then you know, I don't want to give them the power. But it was like four four people who I think it's okay to say that they they're kind of grifters. Like hating on things is sort of their gimmick and that's what gets them their views and their money. So like I get it. But they like four or five of them dropped reviews the other day and then all over IMDB and on Rotten Tomatoes. The review score goes from like eight point six for like viewership score Down to eight point two, dropping at point four points, like and it's it's gonna continue to go down for a couple of days and then, you know, we'll have episode two come out and we'll have to see like what it looks like then. I'm not somebody who goes to IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes to grade these things ever. To me it's like I'm not a professional reviewer, so my score really shouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things. But it's just crazy that these people have the power over other people to and it got pointed out. One of these grifters was kind of praising lanterns on night one, and then when it came time for the review, it was the switch flipped because the other ones were negative and they want to, you know, be together. Mr. Harmless said, I loved Penguin. Bro, to me, Penguin was the best of like after Watchmen, Penguin was like the next great thing to me. Like I tuned in expecting a certain type of show, and I feel like it was advertised to be a certain way. And DC and HBO really nailed it. I love the kind of like this. I love the grounded vibe to it, but also still feels like it suits the characters that are in it. And there's small nitpicks like Oswald Cobblepot's name g being changed to Oswald Cobb. Like stuff like that. Not a big deal to me. It was just a great, great show from episode one to the finale. I hear there's rumblings and grumblings that they might not do. a season two now, but that is a show to me that ending the Batman Part Two movie, I I would want to see that show continue on. It's hilarious that the angry fans having to take an L since Sunday. Yeah, honestly, I don't like to like, you know, point fingers and laugh at anybody. That's not really my game. But a lot of these people have hated on not just the show before it came out, but a lot of us who had said that we liked what we were hearing, we liked what we were seeing, we were excited for the show to come out. So for the people who were predicting right before the episode drop that It's gonna be bad, that nobody's gonna care, and nobody's gonna tune in to watch it. they could not have swung and missed any harder. That's three strikes, as far as I'm concerned, they're out. people did like it, people did tune in, and it is a really good show through one episode so far. You know, we still have seven more to go, but so far, so good. Grim said WBD tweeted about it, yeah. That's where I stole the thumbnail for this video, was their tweet. I all said it's weird being on this side of positivity. Yeah. Yeah. Again, it kind of felt like we were gonna be having to like wade through a minefield based on how everybody was acting going into this the season. I would I don't want to say it was like overwhelming majority negative online. But my algorithm was definitely feeding me like the worst of the worst takes of the bunch. and I mostly spent time on threads because for some reason my algorithm on threads is like very, very wholesome, very positive, whether it's the rings of power or it's lanterns. But I would log into X and just see stuff that would for sure annoy me. And I shouldn't be staring at it 'cause I know then X is gonna feed me more of that. But it's like, I wanna type back n you know mean things at these people and I'm like, don't do it, it's not worth it. Reginald McGrady, bona fide hit, certified smash, 100% correct. The show is a bona fide hit. Again, at least through week one, I am certain at this point, DC, the creatives behind the show, the people who worked on the show, HBO, everybody has to be happy with how things have played out so far. Welcome to Dairy Was Amazing. I have only seen a couple episodes of Welcome to Dairy because it came out at a time where I was really busy with work and then some influencer stuff for a different thing. I watched the first episode, I thought it was wild. watched the second episode, I really enjoyed it too, and then I think I had stopped there, and then I just never got back around to it. And now with lanterns out, it's like if I've got free time, you know, the wife wants to put on like Big Brother or Silo or One of these other shows, I think Ted Lasso had a new episode come out. I'm putting TV on right now, I'm I'm tuning into my buddies to listen to them talk about Green Lantern, or I'm putting lanterns back on myself. When when my son doesn't have me putting Bluey on. whether or not people like the direction the show is going, we can all agree that uplifted the Green Lantern IP. Yeah. I don't think there's any denying it now. Not just not just in the fact that so many people are having fun with the show. Again, the memes have been so, so, so good. But I've seen just on my own feed. I've seen so many people either come to Reddit or ask on socials like, I'm new to this. The show is so sick right now. What should what do you guys recommend that I read? Or is there a reading order if I'm just starting out and I want to follow certain characters? I've seen so much of like recommend me comic books. And that to me is like the greatest thing that can come of this. I obviously want a great show. I want people to enjoy it and have fun and we all get along and you know, we finally have this thing that where we go, really the only thing most Green Lantern fans recommend for the most part for people to watch is the animated series. And then they're like, well, if you if you have to watch another thing, maybe First Flight or Emerald Knight, don't watch Beware of My Power, don't watch the 2011 movie. But it feels nice that we might now have an actual live action where It is so good. We're having people recommend it to people who aren't familiar with the comics. And then they come to the comics. And then even for people who don't like the show, but they love their Green Lantern comics, you now get to meet these new fans on the internet and tell them your opinions about what the good runs are or where should you start. And now you're making more and more people come and enjoy Green Lantern comics. And if we can get them there and they can enjoy comics, I think that is like the best thing. That can come from having an excellent show. Infinite Entertainment 99 said, hopefully there will be a renewal announcement at New York Comic-Con. That is correct me if I'm wrong, that's in October, right? A part of me would really like, like, if then if episode two comes out and the viewership is just as good, it would be really nice to just go ahead and early renew it right then. But a part of me also says if we're that close to a big event like New York Comic Con. Yeah, I can one hundred percent see them wanting to announce it like then and there. These victims are gonna end up being alien. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if you guys have seen the like after the episode they had this like what's to come this season. I think it was like two or three minutes long. But I I think a lot of the things that we see in that are are pretty alien. We have to acknowledge when we look at past viewership that HBO was less accessible in different regions. Yeah, that's a hundred percent correct. but what I what I would say, and this isn't correct, but what I would say is that they knew lanterns was gonna be so good that they had to get the other regions their HBO and HBO Max. It's lanterns that did that more than anything. D Man Seven Thousand said Chandler nailed Hal Jordan, at least for me. Kind of remind me of our Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man back in two thousand eight. You know, it's crazy that you're saying that because I think I listened to Juju Green, Straw Hat Goofy talk about him seeing this season with Aaron Pierre and feeling like watching Aaron Pierre as Jon Stewart was like a Robert Downey becoming Iron Man to him. But I think a lot of people have flipped that switch and really come on to Kyle Chandler plays an excellent Hal Jordan. Now, if I had to say, of all the different timelines in the show so far, the hologram that comes from the ring, that might be my favorite Kyle Chandler, Hal Jordan so far. And I'm hoping that we get more of that one in the future. Ralph said, seems like a great way to ease non-GL fans into the 70 years of lore. This will be a great gateway for the Randos to discover the books, Green Lantern, the animated series, the animated films, not you beware my power, JLU, and more. Yeah, honestly, like it would just be so great to have more and more people pick up the comics and then come to Reddit, Discord, social, whatever, and be actively engaging with like the comic book fandom. Getting the artist more money, the writers more money, so people can just thrive. It's that would be like the absolute best. D Man said, Should DC be exclusively on TV? Their success rate with their TV shows and animation is far greater than their live action, I'm assuming movies. maybe DC succeeds better at long form of storytelling on TV. I think I think it's one of those things where you I don't I don't know how they really make money on streaming. Even though I'm I do things with a few of the streaming companies, I don't have any insight on like you can tell me, okay, Lanterns just had 9.3 million viewers over three days. I don't know how that translates to anything financially for them to like know what makes money. But it's a lot easier to point to like a movie that does a billion dollars on a budget of $300 million and go, okay, that made profit. They can make more movies. They can make more shows. I think they need both. I think that there's there's room for great movies, along with having great shows. And you're right, DC's track record with these shows has been really, really good. and the movie might be hit or miss. I'm I'm hopeful that Clayface does well, but it's not a movie that needs to make a ton of money to become profitable. But I think I think we'll have a better idea of like what DC's direction truly should be after Man of Tomorrow comes out. Mr. Harmless said, I seen one guy said when John's father was on the phone, he was talking about being black and Hal being white. Like, bro, he was talking about Hal being a Green Lantern and it wasn't about race. I can see both sides of that argument. Talking about how, like, you know, as a black dude, whatever, he's gotta be more buttoned up in comparison to Hal. But I think most of that conversation just kind of revolves around John's shock that he thinks I don't even know if John really thinks Hal was trying to kill him. I think he knows deep down how will only put him in positions to like get the best out of him. But stuff like that. It's whatever to me. random guy ZK3IU says, Hey. New here. Welcome. Happy you're here. Good to see you. Hope you've been having a great week. And hopefully you enjoyed the first episode of Lanterns. If you're still here, let us know in the chat what you thought about episode one and you know, John's parents. The portrayal of Hal. That interrogation scene, which was Everything. I thought it was the best. You know, Ralph has other ideas of what the best scene is. He really likes the one where it's Avan Sir's the backstory. But for me, it it's that interrogation scene. It's Hal outsmarting Chris Coy's alien, Wayland Sanders, Hal having that confidence to call somebody else's bluff. But you as a viewer don't know is Hal bluffing? Is the ring out of juice or is it low on power? Or is Chris Coy bluffing? And Waylon Sanders isn't really the alien that he says he is, and he isn't gonna be able to become a ticking time bomb, basically. Turns out neither was bluffing. He was gonna blow up, and Hal did have enough juice to contain it. And that look, when Hal does contain the blast, when he kinda like sits up in all the debris and the rubble and he looks towards Sheriff Carey and John and he just gives that like that smile. And he's like, Told you he was an alien. that was like chef's kiss. I was riding a high at that point and I didn't know how far into the episode we were, and then all of a sudden the next scene is the one in the snow and then we find out how's dead. And I thought that that was just how did y you you let me get so high and now all of a sudden you're bringing me right back down. Great riding. Great writing. Grimm said, it's crazy people think that Ryan Reynolds is a better Hal Jordan than Kyle Chandler. I everybody's gonna have their fans, everybody's gonna have their takes, but I really I really do believe that right now in live action, for sure, when you a year from now think about who Hal Jordan is in live action, you'll probably equate it much more to Kyle Chandler than Ryan Reynolds. And that's no shot at Ryan. I actually like Ryan Reynolds as an actor. I think he's very funny, very witty. and it suits Deadpool great. But I just think Kyle Chandler suits Hal Jordan more. I thought I saw a question about a ring. here we go. Guy Gardner rings from Superman 2025 is clearly different here. Like no gold slash yellow. I'm trying to see if I have got a bright light out here. I don't know if I have the willpower made ring on the desk to show you guys the difference. I don't know where it is. But close enough, the one from the DC shop isn't too bad. Here's the one from the DC shop. Actually, just to make it easier for you guys, let me stop sharing screen. There you go. So you got this one here. There we go. and it's got the gold all around the green. And then if you compare that to this, this is the one Guy Gardner has. It does not look anything like this. These are two completely different rings. And yes, I know. I know Tom King or whoever slipped on the official podcast and said that the ring is currently with Guy. In my head right now, I'm just thinking Guy has a Green Lantern ring. And it's this one. If he got Hal's, then I think that he got it and didn't like the look of Hal's, so he changed it to this one in particular. But I something's telling me. Deep down that he was misspeaking there and that's not the full story and we'll get the full story as we go. Random guy, the person who said he was new here said loved it. The first episode was amazing. A lot of people have come to that conclusion. I I just think that if you try to take your personal feelings about like this is what I would want in my Green Lantern show, because I think a lot of us a lot of people, I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think a lot of people would point to like the blackest night sort of story is like the peak. Of what you can imagine for a Green Lantern on a show with eight hours to tell a story, that's gonna be hard to make. So if you take away like your personal this is what I would want and just look at the show for what it is and try to like erase anything that you have like preconceived about it going in. A very entertaining first off, the first five minutes is wild with John's dad shooting the apple off his head to show you some of like John's upbringing. Like that's insane. crazy way to kick off a series. And then as you go, the back and forth between Hal and John gets me every time. But more than that, the back and forth between Sheriff Carey and Hal, where she's always getting like the better of him, that was great. Jason Ritter pops up just for a minute to be like the lawyer. I thought he did good there, but it's not a lot of him. So hopefully we'll get more of him going forward. And then William Macon when he when he said to John you know, there's nothing better than eating off another man's grill and then like what that meant. It was like we're getting all these great performances, acting wise and writing wise. And then by the time we get to Wayland Sanders being interrogated by Hal Jordan, that scene is just a top scene in TV period. Like the way it was written, also that cinematic shot that everybody's been posting on socials where it's Hal has Wayland Sanders up against the glass and Sheriff Carey and John, you can see all four people together. Everything like all star team working on this show behind the cameras and in front of the cameras. D Man7000 said Guy Gardner can still have Hal's ring. The ring changes its look to suit the user. I hear you. I hear you. But at the same time, I think that Guy has to have his own ring. And then John has to have his own ring. Just because, like, and I'm not trying to do like spoilers, but we do know that both Guy and John will be in Man of Tomorrow. And I imagine they're both full blown Green Lanterns in the Man of Tomorrow. So there there has to be something else going on with the ring portion of the story that we can have both of them being Green Lanterns in the Superman Lex Luther crossover movie. Do I think Guy will be in the next episode? if I had to guess, if I had to guess, I would say the next episode is going to have to set up the aftermath from the explosion. How does the town react to okay, we for sure have alien activity here now that and Green Lanterns are here too. But we have alien activity here and they just blew up part of the town. What's going on? We have to get the aftermath of that. and then I would think we're also gonna get more of John's backstory, his upbringing. I think the Guy Gardner moments are probably like to come still further ahead in the season. The ending twist was kind of shocking though, seeing the goat Hal Jordan dead was heartbreaking. Still can't accept that he is really dead. Maybe I'm coping overall a very good episode. No, and I I've said this from the jump. Like, I want death to mean something in the DCU. Like, if you're supposed to be dead, be dead. But there is so much that people can point to to go. One, again, you guys point out, it's a major character, right? If a major character is gonna die, we should see. How they die. They shouldn't just die off screen and then we walk up after the fact and see them dead. So we haven't seen him actually die. just before that, when they're getting ready to do the interrogation, John and Carrie are having a conversation around how many alien species or life forms do we know about that can sort of imitate humans that we don't have the technology to detect here on Earth? And I think he said there's 14 different kinds. So they've already given us like Aliens can transform and shape shift to be looking like humans. So maybe that's not Hal. Then you also have the idea that if you saw that three-minute clip of like what's to come, there's a scene where Hal's dragging a body backwards. Obviously he's probably an alien. And he puts it in the back of the car. And when they show them in the car, the alien just happens to have a gunshot wound in the same spot that Hal has his at. So we didn't see the killing blow. We know that there's a bunch of different types of aliens that can transform. And now we're seeing an alien who happens to have the same wound Hal has. And then there's just like, you know, there could be red herring type stuff, like again, just before the scene where we find him dead, Wayland Sanders is like, it's almost like you want to die and break your oath, Hal Jordan. But you know, Hal also has this conversation where he's telling John, you know, as long as I'm around and I don't plan on dying anytime soon, you you don't have a shot at the ring, it's mine, whatever. Like there's so much that if your team he is dead, you don't have like definitive proof yet. But if you're also team, I think he could be alive, there's not definitive proof yet to show that he's for sure dead. Like you there's still like so much conversation to be had around it, I guess, until we get more footage. We just have to wait and see. It's crazy. Hal most likely is dead because of the way they have set up GL and DCU is only one Green Lantern on Earth has the ring, so when John gets it, then Hal will not have it anymore unless Hal lives without being a Green Lantern. It's also a TV and movie universe. So they might not be sticking like 100% to what we're normally used to seeing in the comics. They might decide by the end of the show that you can have, you know, two Green Lanterns partnered up in a sector like it has happened sometime in the past. They could do a thing where maybe they induct John or Guy, probably more like John. into like being an honor guard since he was chosen by the guardians and he can just patrol wherever, but Guy is the Green Lantern of Earth. So then you can have two of these human Green Lanterns out there doing work still without it being like a a huge lore issue. Like there's different ways that they can play with it fast and loose. I'm episode one was just so great that I'm at the point where whatever they're willing to do, I'm willing to see where it goes before I go, man, this is terrible or this is the best ever. I'm hoping for Atrocitous Larfleas or Saint Walker to come to the DCU. I tell people all the time, my my favorite two non-green lanterns are Larfleas and Saint Walker. So I would like almost nothing more than to see them make an appearance, but I'm not sure how I can see how Saint Walker would work as like a a character that shows up in a TV show or a movie and he's around for just a small chunk of it without being around for the whole thing. I'm not sure how you make Larfleas work. Because he's such a he's a character that could be like a raid boss, but then at the same time he can also be like completely ridiculous in how he's written. So I'm not sure how to make him both very funny and endearing to the audience, but also making him like scary as shit, because he can be super scary. Kyle Chandler really captures Hal Jordan's charm real well. The humor feels natural, perfect for an older version. Yeah, like after episode one, it's kind of like a no notes type thing. I think that Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan is excellent. Still would really like to get to see more of the Halogram Hal Jordan compared to like the modern day one. But Kyle Chandler on the TV is winning for me. Are we ever gonna see a GL movie or have DC settled on Green Lantern being a streaming series from now on? Well, I think if this one does well and continues the momentum it has from episode one, I think we're going to get season two signed off and greenlit. The writer's room has already been put together completely. in the writer's room, I know that they have been hard at work writing what is to be like the outline of season two since early July. I've interacted with some of the writers on social media on threads, for instance, if people want to go like digging for who could potentially be in there. But publicly we know Chris Mundy is gonna return for season two and Christopher Cantwell, who did Catch hul I don't know why I'm I'm butchering the name of his show right now. But he had a a hit show too. He's added to the season two writers' room. There's one returning writer from season one. and their episode has not aired yet. And then two or three new names coming to the list as well that haven't been publicly announced. But I looked them up. They all have great credentials. So I'm excited for the story they could be telling in season two. But I also think there's still room for like if you have Aaron Pierre under contract. I can one hundred percent see them giving season two to different Green Lanterns. I think it's still going to be like led by John. I don't know how they're gonna do it, but I think he's still intended to be the lead for season two. But get Aaron Pierre his own solo movie, I think that that's the move. I think that when you see this how it is, it's like how could you not want them to be in the movies? Plus, if you look at the history of Green Lantern in the DCU right now, The only movie that hasn't done financially well was Supergirl, and it's the only one that didn't feature a Green Lantern so far. But all the shows and Superman so far have had at least an appearance or an immense of Green Lantern and those did okay. So put Green Lanterns in everything. That's the lesson that should be learned. by House Death, we have a good few other heroes. Yeah, and there's His absence in a future season is just the opportunity for a different character's ascension. You know, what about everybody's thinking about like what other human Green Lantern? Like, could they add Kyle to it? Could they add Jessica Cruz to it or Simon Baz or whoever? Will they just make it John and Guy? I think we should think more outside the box and go, what about if. John. Doesn't team up with a Green Lantern in season two, for whatever reason, John has to team up with a a Red Lantern. Or John has to team up with Sinestro or somebody else in the Sinestro core. I think there's room for that to be a great story itself, and how now you'll get the lore behind how some of these different lantern cores really operate, what they mean. They would probably then go over like how many there are in total. There's there's a lot of ways for them to play it where I think you can still do great shows, but I definitely think at least for Aaron Pierre, he should get his own movie. I think Bruce started as Batman around the same time as Hal. Yeah. And and there's been how many Batman movies we've gotten now where they're close in age, but like s like Ben Affleck's a different age than Christian Bell's Batman. Like it's kind of all over the place. They c they can make it work. How big of a role do you think Aaron Pierce, Jon Stewart will have in Superman and Mana Tomorrow 2027? I don't think he's gonna have a massive role. Just because There's been no pictures of this dude, at least outside. Because I was hoping that, you know, it's filming just hours away from me in Atlanta. I was hoping we would get some outdoor shot of John in his suit before it it premiered in Lanterns and we would get to see it early and think, you know, go, is it cool? Is it not cool? I think he'll have I think a lot of the movies meant to be like Lex Luthor and Superman, and then you're gonna have these other characters hop in and get their three to four minutes of screen time just so like moviegoers maybe get shown these characters for the first time and then maybe want to look up what they've been in or, you know, what the character is and then get into the comics and conversations about it. And then eventually if they make shows or movies featuring them, people will have kind of a rough idea of what they're about. Hmm. I would love it if the DCU makes Jon Stewart the Justice League Green Lantern and Kyle Rayner the main Green Lantern outside of the Justice League. Random guy. You are speaking to my heart. Because I don't want to lose Aaron Pierre at this point at all. I think he's a treasure. But Kyle Rayner's my Green Lantern. That's the one that I mess with the most. He's the one that I like reading about. He's the One, I'm not an artist, but if I'm sitting here doodling and drawing, that's the Green Lantern like I headcanon think of stories for. Kyle's the one that got me into the comics in general. So I would love to see Kyle Raynor, period. But I just think James Gunn just really doesn't like Kyle Rayner. Trotter says, jumping in real quick to say hi, and that I freaking love the first episode. The chemistry of the two mains, the build-up, the script itself overall, the mystery. Hot damn great start. 1000%, buddy. I again, it's just been for me as somebody who's been waiting for this for so, so, so long. For it to finally get here. And it just feels like very fulfilling that. You talk about the show and what it could be for so long and all you really want is for it to be good. If it's not what I wanted or pictured in my head, I just want it to be a good show that's entertaining and it's captivating and it brings more people into the fandom in a positive manner. And I think that they have excelled at that through the first episode for sure. I'm not expecting season two. This is by Dynaguy 3, since I'm not expecting season two to be more cosmic than season one, since Mundy wanted to make a grounded show. I think you can st I think you can mix it. I think you can do a grounded show on another planet. You can make the planet resemble Earth-type stuff or structures or whatever. Like it doesn't have to be too cosmic. But I think if you've gone cosmic by the end of season one of lanterns. and viewership was maintained and reviews still come in and it's going well and people like it, I think they'll be more open to getting sort of more sci-fi or more fantastical in a future season and seeing what else they're about. Strouders said consider liking the video folks, it helps boost this channel. Yeah, so to me it's crazy when I get super chats because I do not ask for them, but it's very, very humbling To get them at all. Like times are tough for a lot of people, for anybody being willing to like spend their money here and help me out and pay for like Riverside or the website and then like then I'm just making the stuff for for the fun of it, for the love of the game. Like that means the world. I also never ask for likes, views, comments, none of that. But if y'all want to do that, if you feel so compelled to drop a like at a as I just said that. Hold I gotta I gotta bring the phone closer. I just got a super chat from Caleb Talks 2009 and said just got into reading comics directly and Jeff John's Rebirth Omnibus is one of the ones I'm starting with. The show is giving me a lot of secret origin vibes with the plot. Ready to see where it goes. First off, it's the first time I've seen you chat here, Caleb. So one, welcome to the page. Thank you so much for spending your time here on this Thursday night. The night you're starting to run together. appreciate you dropping the super chat. That is really, really awesome of you. But also like I don't know if you were here at the start, but this is like the perfect, this is what I'm talking about, guys. He said he just got into reading the comics. and he's getting a lot of the, you know, vibes from the show. That's the greatest thing that can happen from a great show, is that we have all these comics and stories from the past that we now get to share with people like Caleb in the chat and direct him on like He he's obviously already picked up some great ones. Like you can't really go wrong with Jeff Johns. But it's just, it's crazy to me. You and you're kind of jumping into it, but like once you read through these, it's like these are such great stories, you're gonna be hooked. And now you're gonna be asking, once you get towards the end of these books, what are the next ones to hop into? Like what else does everybody recommend? Or these are the things that I liked about Rebirth, but these are what I didn't like. What are more runs like this? Or hey, I am reading a lot with Hal, but I'm more interested in learning about John. Like, what do guys recommend? This is all I've ever wanted. Was to be able to come online and talk to people about Green Lantern stuff, the comics, the shows. Like, my gosh. I just we just got another one from Swampy Head 17. $10 super chat. They said, new subscriber, just read War Journal and GL Rebirth. That's what Caleb's reading. Rebirth. rebirth run again. Red John's new fifty two again, and it still hits hard. Here's to the growth of the channel. Hashtag raise your rings high lanterns. Thank you so much for both the super chat and sharing what you're reading. you know, let me know next time you're around what you think of War Journal. I I loved War Journal. There was only one bit, and I'm not gonna spoilers. there's only one bit of War Journal. Where I was like, man, I wish this didn't happen, or I wish they could have went in another direction with this. But outside of this thing, I really, really loved it. and I I text Ralph a bunch about it, and then he he read it as well. And I think he really liked it. but we just we didn't see eye to eye on like sort of as we got towards the end of War Journal, like what was great, what was not. let me try to catch back up on the chat here. Says, do you think the GL movie back in twenty eleven and Ryan Reynolds' constant jokes about Green Lantern and his Deadpool movies have severely contributed to the irreparable I lost it. Irreparable damage to the GL brand. I mean it it did it hasn't done any favors, obviously. It's him constantly poking at it has only enabled like the team who did Sonic. Threw a shot at Green Lantern about a big green fist. Then you have all the memes that get posted, and then anytime Green Lantern gets brought up anywhere, because live actions tend to last with people longer in terms of like media than s like comic runs do. That it's like you run into people, and for better or for worse, when people think Green Lantern, a lot of them are gonna think of the 2011 movie. Him constantly poking at it. Has done no favors and he doesn't realize, I think, or maybe he's joking because it hurts, the amount of like damage he has done to it. Is it irreparable? I don't know. What I do think is a hit show on HBO with nine point three million people tuning in over the first three days and putting up some crazy numbers. That could go a long way to healing that and making people forget about that. And then if we roll that momentum over into Aaron Pierre and Nathan Fillion have a good performance in Man of Tomorrow. Then I think we'll get more and more into the weeds of here's what Green Lantern could be, and get away from all the, well, Ryan Reynolds has killed the brand. And for a while, it definitely feels like he did. Mr. Harmel said, wait, they're filming a few hours from me. Yeah, they've been filming in Atlanta for months now. And I I've constantly thought about taking a trip there. I've tweeted at James Gunn or threaded at him. I don't know what they call it over there. Tell him like, Hey, I'm nearby. If you could just get me on set for a minute just to say hey to Aaron, like that would be the dopest thing. I don't need to take pictures or whatever, but that'd be cool. in terms of live action, DC and WB have never given a single F about the other characters outside of Batman. I love Batman. I hope the DCU makes the general audience care about these characters. I think that that's where we're headed. I think that that's where we're headed. Where more and more people are gonna care about these for better or for worse. I don't know what to say, but like not they're not lesser characters. Like to me, if you ask me who's cooler, Batman or Hal Jordan, I'm saying I'm telling you Hal Jordan. I I I can name like 13 lantern characters. That I think are way cooler than Batman. That's no shot at Batman. I watch all the Batman movies. I watch Cape Crusader. I like Batman too. But yeah, I think from a general audience perspective, it's a lot easier for them to for for DC and WB and all them to push Batman because kind of like Spider Man, unless something goes horrifically wrong, you know it's gonna make the studio money. So they just keep throwing Batman at everything. Swampy Head said, getting people into the comics is always the goal. That's why I despise these grifters because they keep people from what comics offer people, not just superhero comics. 100%. probably couldn't say it better myself, but it's like I don't like all the the gatekeepiness of those grifters. I think you should want people to enjoy the thing so much that they go, Hey, recommend me more things that are like this. What what do you like to read? what comics? What graphic novels? What Mangas, whatever. Like you should want more people into that, so then the people and teams can end up making more of it. And then you just hope that they're good. Falcons, I'm probably gonna wrap here in the next few minutes. It's eight twenty-seven my time, and I have to get ready for another show at nine. Over on Nerd of the Rings YouTube channel, we're gonna be playing a Lord of the Rings game that has re-released after a long time. Oop, let me read this one first. PKJ nailed John's personally. Yeah, Swampy, I again, there's only one decision and I don't want to say what it is, because I don't want to spoil it for anybody who's not caught up to the run yet. But for sure, I thought especially early on, I was like in tears over some of the things that were happening with like John and his his mom. but just as we got to the end, I wanted a certain end and I didn't get it, and I'm trying to not hold it against it, but yeah, I really liked it outside of that. let's just read a few more. Strader said 100% agree. This is always a great thing to get more people into a fandom, and that is the good side of any adaptation, even if it is a legit bad one. Yeah, you can have a bad show, but it's gonna bring in its own fans, and then those people are probably gonna go find the sewer source material. To go if I think that this is good and you're saying it's bad, show me what's better. And then you get to hand them these books or these you know, in our case, these comic books. Stratter said I plan to get into the GL Lore and comics as soon as I'm done with my final exam. congrats on being so close to the end and good luck getting through that. go ahead and pull it back up again. Gotta find a good way to have them delivered to Europe though, since I'm not sure there is a good selection here. I'm not sure about the availability of DC UI over there, but it's a subscription service. you can do a one time payment or you can pay monthly. And it have this like the backlog of everything. And then it's usually like whatever new comics come out, one month from then, if you're on like the ultimate tier, you can read it. If you're not on the the highest tier, then you just have to wait a little bit longer. But eventually, you know, they'll I think after five or six weeks they'll have everything, even the new stuff is in there for you to read. but there's so many comics from the past that it you know, you can just pick a character, pick a timeline, pick an era. And just start going through it and you will find stuff that's so great to read. so should we call people who like GL a bat or a lantern wait, should we call people who liked GL a lantern head? Literally in case you got a GL cap on your head. Got one from the show. You know what's crazy? I was told when I was at Comic Con getting this hat, they handed us a pamphlet and they said anything in yellow is like the store exclusives here and anything not marked in yellow will be available online later. And the hat was one of the things not marked in yellow. So I thought it was gonna be on the DC shop for everybody. And turns out for some reason it was like the reverse. And or maybe I just read it wrong. You know, that could be on me. Maybe I did read it wrong and had a dyslexic moment. But I was trying to buy my merch based on this is the stuff I can only get here in person, like some of the shirts. but like the the jacket. Bomber jacket behind me, that's really dope. I thought that that was going to be an exclusive there, but it's sold on the DC shop. Alright, just a couple more before we call it. nobody should care about Critical Drinker. Yeah, like those folks and their ilk, they they need to hate things because that's what their audience really likes and tunes into. So they're gonna hate stuff no matter what, even if we can all see it. And we can see that it's fake hate, they're still gonna do it. Caleb Talks said, Thanks for reading my chat. Yeah, so I had to I had to make sure I had my phone out during this because I was guilty of it. That on the last live I did. I got a super chat and I didn't read it out loud. Just because Riverside doesn't put it up on the screen for me. I only see the regular chats, not the supers. I got my phone out in front of me, and as soon as I saw that other color, it popped up and I was like, Let's get these red. by the way, the CGI visual effects of the constructs look very high quality. I I've heard Ralph say this like four times, but I'm in the camp of I think that these look better than what we got in the Superman movie. I don't know how much crossover there is on the teams between the two working on those, but I just I think what we've seen just looks a little bit crisper than what we got in the movie. I thought it looked better in lanterns than a Superman with got yes, yeah, that's exactly what I was just saying. Sorry, I just saw your comment now. And then Schroider said, Had a great evening, folks. See you on Monday. I'm gonna go ahead and end here just because I gotta get ready to hop on another stream. Again, thank you everybody so much for tuning in. Very proud of the viewership numbers we've gotten for the show, the ratings that we have gotten for the show, and the fandom around the show has been having An absolute blast. If you haven't, 100% go check out the memes because there's some really, really great ones out there. And hopefully we can ride this wave of momentum into episode two, which comes out Sunday. And then I'll be live with Lanterns Live as soon as the episode ends on Sunday. And then about an hour in, I'll come back here and host my own live here. I appreciate everybody for tuning in, checking out, especially a handful of the first time chatters that we got today. I appreciate all of you and for everybody who isn't a first time chatter, you guys are who carries the channel and I appreciate y'all greatly. in brightest day, in blackest night, I love you guys. Hope y'all have a good night.
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Lanterns smashes some viewership numbers for DC TV on HBO Max and becomes their fourth best debut ever.
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/lanterns-premiere-viewership-9-3-million-hbo-max-1236839414/
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