The DCU has finally pulled the curtain back on one of its most anticipated releases, releasing the first trailer for the Green Lantern-focused project Lanterns. The new trailer gave fans their first look at the much-talked-about true crime aspect of the series as well as the developing dynamic between Hal Jordan and John Stewart. One of the biggest takeaways though is that the trailer has now confirmed the best Green Lantern is canon to the DCU, and it’s also given us a clue as to when we might see them.
The majority of the Lanterns trailer focuses on Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and Stewart (Aaron Pierre) during Stewart’s training, and while the two travel in the car to an unknown destination, Stewart asks Jordan if he’s ever talked with the other Lanterns. That’s when Jordan says, “I’m the only human, they’re aliens. One of them’s a f squirrel.” That squirrel is none other than the tiny powerhouse Green Lantern known as Ch’p, and the DCU just got 10 times better now that he’s a part of it.
Who The Hell Is Ch’p, And When Could We See Him In Lanterns?
The Green Lantern Corps includes members from sectors across the galaxy, so while the Earth Lanterns of Jordan, Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner might be the most well-known, they are but one group in an extensive cosmos-spanning force. Ch’p is one of those cosmic Lanterns, and at one point was the protector of Sector 1014. Ch’p made his DC Comics debut in Green Lantern #148 in 1981 and was created by Paul Kupperberg and Don Newton. While he’s actually not technically a squirrel, he is made to look like one, so everyone just calls him a squirrel anyway.
While there’s obviously a great visual element to seeing a squirrel be an awesome Green Lantern, he gets even more impressive when you find out how he became a Lantern in the first place. Ch’p was a leader of the H’lvenite resistance on his homeworld of H’lven, which was a peaceful world before the villainous Doctor Ub’x and his army invaded and fully took over. Ch’p was captured and was sentenced to death to set an example for the rest of the planet, but that’s when hope would intervene.
As he awaited his execution, a Guardian vested him in his cell and offered him a Power Ring and the opportunity to join the Green Lantern Corps. Ch’p agreed, and with the ring’s power, he was able to take down Ub’x and his followers and bring peace to his homeworld. Afterwards, Ch’p would head to Oa and start to train with Kilowog, and would soon become a trusted and relied-upon member of the Green Lantern Corps.
Ch’p would even have his own rogues gallery with villains like Battle Beaver, Chick Fury, and the Terrible B’Gul Bears, and he also had a wife named M’nn’e. One of the ways Doctor Ub’x tried to get revenge on Ch’p was by using his power to make everyone on H’lven forget about Ch’p, including M’nn’e, and because of this, she ended up marrying Ch’p’s best friend D’ll. There’s a whole ecosystem with Ch’p that the DCU can mine if it so chooses, but even if it doesn’t, there’s definitely a fun bond with Jordan that can be explored, and maybe we’ll even see Jordan give Ch’p his little guy nickname before the series is done.
As for when we’ll see Ch’p in the series, the odds are that there will be at least one episode that deals with the bigger cosmic aspects of the Green Lantern Corps. Whether that’s a flashback earlier in the series or one of the final destinations towards the end of the season remains to be seen, but if there’s a group shot of other Lanterns from OA, that will likely be where Ch’p makes his DCU debut. If we actually get dialogue and some real exchanges between the Lanterns, that would be amazing, but just seeing him on screen and officially part of this world would be enough for me at this stage.
There’s also something to be said for seeing Ch’p alive, as his death is one of the more infamous ones in Green Lantern history. While the vulnerability to yellow is a long-gone element of the Green Lanterns, it was incredibly important at one point, and thanks to a yellow truck, Ch’p died directly because of it, being run over by that yellow truck and mourned by his friend Stewart. It seems Ch’p is alive and well in the DCU, and that’s plenty of reason to celebrate.
Lanterns will release on HBO Max this August.
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