Lanterns' Kyle Chandler And Aaron Pierre Discuss Hal And John's Complicated Relationship: Mortality, Mentorship, And More — Watch

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 1 premiere of "Lanterns." Proceed accordingly.

On the outside, Hal Jordan may seem like a roll-with-it, no-worries type of superhero. The hair! The quips! The apparent distaste for ironing his clothing! But Kyle Chandler, who plays interplanetary space cop Green Lantern in HBO's "Lanterns," says there's a lot more to Hal — and what he thinks about his new trainee, John Stewart (played by Aaron Pierre) — than you might suspect.

As we saw in Sunday's series premiere (read a full recap), Hal initially is under the impression that showing John the ropes is "just something that's gonna pass by," Chandler tells me in the video above. "I mean, yeah, OK, they say that [John's] the guy, but he's not going to be able to do the job, and I don't have to worry too much about it. I've been doing this thing for a long time, and I can tell right away. I'm like, 'The kid's tough. He's got this and that, but he ain't going to be able to figure this out.' Slowly but surely, a relationship forms, and things move on. And that's the fun of the whole story."

Pierre smiles as he, with extreme tact, notes the training methods Hal employs are "not how John would do it." So Stewart has to employ every bit of his military training to "put his emotions on the back burner. He has to lead, not with his heart, he can't lead with his spirit, he has to lead with a very objective mind and not be offended, not find anything egregious. He has to really just sit on a lot of the things that he's feeling."

Aaron Pierre previews that Hal won't let up on his pupil as we head into Episode 2. "To John, at least in those moments, literally and metaphorically, it feels like insult after insult," he says. "And he just has to absorb it, absorb it, absorb it." 

Next to Pierre, Kyle Chandler smiles and nods. 

"Because this is the path to achieve what his whole life has been directed towards," Pierre finishes.

Chandler jumps in. "And exactly the thing that Aaron just described is what gives Hal the perfect opportunity to mess with him constantly, because that's who he is. He's the military guy. He's the sniper. He's clean. He doesn't listen, he doesn't hear," he says with glee. "But I know he hears everything, and I'm getting to him!"

In truth, that "getting to him" goes both ways. The "Friday Night Lights" alum adds that Hal is very aware of what a young, strong man training for his job could mean for the current Green Lantern.

"I mean, look: He's a threat," Chandler says. "He's a threat to my identity, who I am, who I've been, who I wanna be. But also, I realized: Time's coming to an end eventually, whether it's tomorrow or the next day, it's not gonna be more than 20 years or 10 years. Something's gonna have to happen."

As we saw at the end of the premiere, that time may be closer than 2016-era Hal realizes: A 10-year time jump in the episode's final moments revealed that in 2026, Hal Jordan is dead. 

"There's so much to play in it," Chandler continues. "There's mortality and there's mentorship and there's anger and hatred. There's so much to play in these roles." 

Press PLAY on the video above to watch Pierre and Chandler, as well as co-star Kelly Macdonald, talk all things "Lanterns." Then hit the comments with your thoughts/predictions about the superhero series!