Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy has opened up about the second episode’s Sinestro appearance and how it acts as a shock to the system for those who thought the HBO series was going to outright reject its comic book origins.

“We held off on a lot of the more comic book stuff. It’s very grounded,” Mundy said on Lanterns: The Official Podcast. “We’re in western Nebraska. Hal is wearing jeans and a jacket. It felt like a good time to remind people we understand the show we’re making and we understand who the players are.”

The scene, which arrives at the end of the second episode, ‘Trust Fall’, sees Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan fly off to the intergalactic prison in which former Lantern Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) is being held.

While tensions are understandably frosty between the pair, the moment is framed as Hal returning to his mentor for help in cracking the case on Earth – as a Manhunter runs loose in Rushville.

“It felt like the moment in the show to let everybody know we’re doing space cops,” co-executive producer Vanessa Baden Kelly added.

The sudden emergence of Sinestro, and the history between him and Hal, is proof enough that – in Kyle Chandler’s words – the show won’t be a “slow burn” after the shocking episode 1 cliffhanger.

“I think it turns out great,” Chandler told GamesRadar+. “I think there’s a lot of different moves in the whole deal. It’s an exciting poker game.”

“We didn’t have all the scripts starting out. They started coming in… it’s not a slow burn. It goes from one world into another, and grows into that.”

Lanterns is now airing weekly on HBO and HBO Max.

For more, check out the Lanterns release schedule, plus our best guesses at who the Manhunter is in Lanterns.