The Wire's Paul Ben-Victor joins HBO's Lanterns

Lanterns has added another cast member: Paul Ben-Victor, the actor who is known for his role as Spiros Vondas in HBO's iconic hit The Wire. The American actor will be playing an original alien character called Antaan, who supposedly has an axe to grind against protagonists of the series, including Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre).

This casting announcement was exclusively broken through a report on Deadline, published in the morning of April 23, 2025. Paul Ben-Victor's casting hints at a far more prestigious drama in the vein of True Detective, another HBO hit, than the previous live-action adaptation of the characters from 2011.

Paul Ben-Victor's Lanterns role explained

Paul Ben-Victor, in some ways, is a unique addition to the comic book genre because he is an actor previously involved in acclaimed and award-winning stories. The Deadline article that broke his casting news described the character of Antaan as:

"An extraterrestrial devoted to exposing the truth and exacting vengeance against those who wronged his people. Consumed by a deep and unrelenting hatred for the law, he is determined to deliver justice on his own terms."

Based on the character description above, it seems that his character will be an antagonistic force in the series. Probably, he has a history with Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan, who is described as one of the respected Green Lanterns by other members of the intergalactic corps. But the description also hints at a tragic backstory for Antaan, meaning that the character has a lot of potential for dramatic storytelling.

What is HBO's Lanterns about, and who stars in it?

An adaptation of DC's popular Green Lantern comics, this show was announced by James Gunn in his announcement video from January 2023. This is the first live-action adaptation of these characters after the reviled 2011 movie starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan and Blake Lively as Carol Ferris. James Gunn assured fans that this series will take tonal inspiration from True Detective.

He even went on to hire Chris Mundy, who worked in one of the seasons of True Detective as the showrunner for the DC comics HBO series. Lanterns is headlined by Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre as two iconic Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart, respectively. Supporting these two are Ulrich Thomsen, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Kelly Macdonald, Nathan Fillion (returning as Guy Gardner), and Chris Coy.

Consisting of eight episodes, the series is currently under filming, expected to be released next year on HBO. As production for Lanterns may continue for the coming months, all we have for the series is this tantalizing tease from James Hawes:

"Talking tone, it looks and feels rooted. You meet two guys, but there is wit and comedy to it that you would not expect in True Detective. It is, in many ways, a buddy cop structure with travel in the story time, to and fro, that is really sophisticated. Chris Mundy has done the most amazing job with the team there, and so I think [the True Detective comparison] is valid. People will still go, “What were you talking about?” to some extent, but I would also bring in No Country for Old Men, Fargo and things that have that Americana heart to them. There’s a wry humor, and so there definitely is more wit and humor than there is in True Detective."

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