HBO dropped another trailer for Lanterns this Friday at the SDCC panel. The 03-minute and 08-second-long trailer gives us a proper idea about what we can expect from the DCU series, which is scheduled to release in a few weeks. It also further teases a subplot of a mass shooting in a rural town in Nebraska. But this is where we also get a meta reference to Hal Jordan actor Kyle Chandler's past as Coach Eric Taylor in NBC's sports drama Friday Night Lights.For the uninitiated, Eric Taylor is Kyle Chandler's breakout role, and the upcoming show's trailer features Chandler's Hal Jordan in a football stadium in Rushville, Nebraska. Showrunner Chris Mundy revealed to Entertainment Weekly that the scene in the stadium was a part of Lanterns' pitch even before Chandler's casting, but it ended up being a meta reference to Chandler's iconic role in the sports drama.What did the showrunner say about that Friday Night Lights reference in the Lanterns trailer?Kelly Macdonald as Kerry | Image Via: WBD/press.wbd.comEntertainment Weekly interviewed Chris Mundy and Damon Lindelof after the Hall H presentation. There, the two creatives involved in the DCU HBO series addressed that stadium scene from the Lanterns trailer. Showrunner Chris Mundy was the first to talk about the stadium scene. Mundy said that the writing team came up with the scene of the massacred football stadium even before Chandler's casting:“The football stadium was baked in [the show] before Kyle came on board. But once it was Kyle, we’re like, ‘Oh! We have Coach Taylor in a football stadium.’”After Mundy, Damon Lindelof pointed out that people who worked for Friday Night Lights behind the scenes also worked in a similar capacity for the DCU series:“Even Karen Wacker, one of our two line producers, did Friday Night Lights and still has a place down in Austin,” Mundy adds. “So it was an inevitable path to Kyle.”The trailer also clarifies some basic plot elements: View this post on Instagram Instagram PostThe latest Lanterns trailer reveals the basic plot of the series without giving away any spoilers. Moreover, we know that the HBO series is split into two timelines: 2026 (the present) and 2016 (the past), except for a scene set in the present that lasts for only a fraction of a second.In that scene, we see John Stewart pulling a gun on someone off-screen. He has a goatee, meaning this scene is set in 2026. Except for this moment, almost all of the scenes featuring John and Hal are set in 2016, as we see the former clean-shaven.The trailer also gives away the main villain of Lanterns: the Manhunters. For those who don't know, the Manhunters are robots that the Guardians of the Universe created. But they go rogue and wreak havoc across the galaxy, prompting the Guardians to decommission them and form the Green Lantern Corps instead.Leaked rumors from a few weeks ago already suggested that the Manhunters are involved in the series. The trailer's mention of them suggests that the other leak about Hal Jordan's death in the first episode may also be true.Lanterns premieres on HBO on August 16, 2026, at 09:00 PM ET/06:00 PM PT.