‘Lanterns’: ‘And Just Like That’ Star Nicole Ari Parker Joins the Upcoming HBO-DCU Series!!

The upcoming DC show, Lanterns, that follows Green Lanterns Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) has just cast another role close to home for John Stewart. According to Variety, Nicole Ari Parker has been cast as Bernadette, John Stewart’s mother. Parker has most recently starred in the Max series And Just Like That, a sequel series to the early 2000s series Sex and the City. Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan and Ulrich Thomsen also star. According to Variety, the official character description for Bernadette says, “Formidable and tenacious, Bernadette refuses to give up, no matter how insurmountable the odds. At her core, she’s a fiercely protective mother who has worked her entire life to ensure that she and her family will not be passed over.”

Last month, fans got their first look at the upcoming show, with Hal Jordan and John Stewart walking down what looked to be a desert road on Earth with a confirmation that the show was officially in production. The show, a part of the DCU that is being built by James Gunn and Peter Safran, will be showrun by Chris Mundy (Ozark). Lanterns has been described more as a detective story with John and Hal investigating a “dark, Earth-bound mystery that ties into larger intergalactic stakes.”

‘Lanterns’ Is One of the Next Steps in the DCU

Not much else is known about Lanterns, the show itself. When Collider‘s Steve Weintraub talked with upcoming Lanterns star Poorna Jagannathan for her show Deli Boys. She tells Collider, “This is the first script that I’ve read that I understand why there’s an NDA.” While she couldn’t and didn’t give anything away plot wise, she explains, “I don’t know anything about sci-fi, and I don’t care, actually.” She says, “But this script makes sci-fi seem like my world. It makes it so accessible to me. I understand everything about this world even though I don’t understand this world. So it’s the best sci-fi script I’ve ever read.”

Jagannathan‘s sentiment about accessibility harkens back to a similar statement by James Gunn made to Collider‘s Ross Bonamine on a set visit for another upcoming DCU project, Superman. While Jagannathan is speaking of the accessibility of the sci-fi, the accessibility of the franchise continues to be a theme those involved at the top want to drive home. Gunn told Collider last year, “Everything needs to stand by itself.” He says, “It’s like trying to keep things as simple as possible so you don’t have to have homework.”