In a bold creative decision that’s certain to shake the world of pop culture, HBO Max has released to Instagram a new still from its upcoming series Lanterns. To the shock and delight of at least 12 people (yours truly included), the picture prominently features the color green.The image depicts a human fist butting against a strange, alien-looking object. While the dark shading and overall drabness of the fist and its surroundings match the tone of the images and teasers already released for the series, the object itself has a hue that can only be described as “green.” The inclusion of this greenness represents a hard break from what we’ve been previously shown for the HBO series, which heretofore has seemed like a show about two guys in street clothes walking around the desert, sitting in a bar in the desert, and driving at least one car off a cliff… in the desert. View this post on Instagram Okay, okay, all sarcasm aside, it is pretty surprising and refreshing that Lanterns is at least acknowledging that the show is about Green Lantern, the DC Comics franchise that has existed since 1940 and has been one of the publisher’s top sellers for the past two decades. For as much as James Gunn‘s DCU has embraced the goofier side of the DC Universe, turning Peacemaker, of all people, into a key character, Lanterns has seemed embarrassed of its comic book roots. So far, HBO has been selling the show like its True Detective, treating the extraterrestrial stuff in Lanterns like the supernatural stuff in that show’s first season. Which is to say, not really including it at all.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});However, the new image makes it abundantly clear that Lanterns will have alien elements, and that those elements will be green. The image shows Hal Jordan charging his ring on the power battery, a key part of Green Lantern lore. When inducted into the Green Lantern Corps, each member is given a power ring, which allows them to create whatever they can imagine through force of will. However, they must charge that ring every 24 hours, which they do while reciting a sacred oath.The power battery is one of the elements of Green Lantern that came from the character’s first incarnation in 1940 and persisted when the concept was revised in the Silver Age, changed from the more more magical-based Alan Scott to the sci-fi Hal Jordan, one of thousands of intergalactic policemen. Over the years, the battery has become one of the most important bits of Green Lantern iconography, with individual Corps members modifying theirs to match their personality.However, the power battery has also been one of the clunkier parts of the mythology, the sort of thing that Lanterns co-creator Damon Lindelof may have mocked in the past (he said he was sorry). Between Lindelof’s comments and the overall lack of sci-fi elements in promotions, fans have worried that maybe the power battery would be ignored, in the same way that we never see stars Kyle Chandler or Aaron Pierre wearing their costumes.With the release of the new picture, we Green Lantern fans have less of a reason to fear the show (fear, of course, being the chief emotion of the Green Lantern Corps’ arch-enemies in the Sinestro Corps). We have seen the future of the series, and that future is… green.Lanterns comes to HBO Max on August 16, 2026.The post BREAKING: New Lanterns Promo Image Has Actual Green In It appeared first on Den of Geek.