DUBAI: For Poorna Jagannathan, HBO’s new DC series “Lanterns” — available to stream across the region on OSN+ — is less about costumes and rings and more about who gets to feel invited into that world in the first place.

Asked what she saw in the series, she told Arab News: “I think the value of the show is that it invites people into this genre. People who, like me, don’t usually engage with a genre like this, and I think it is a reframing of the good versus evil paradigm that is so sorely needed in this entire category, and I really, really appreciate that about this show.

“And, you know, ultimately it’s about power. It’s about who keeps the power, who wants the power, who grabs the power, and that is, you know, that’s the state of our world right now.”

Jagannathan plays Zoe Macon, the enigmatic woman at the heart of a decades-old bargain in “Lanterns.” For 30 years she has shielded and protected the small Nebraska town of Rushville, asking its residents in return to protect her identity as the last remaining Manhunter.

She said: “I didn’t know what my character was when I got the part, right? And thank God, because I think I would have played her so differently. I was really shocked, and there is nothing to hate about Zoe.”

Instead, she sees a being who has learned, over lifetimes, to choose compassion, and Jagannathan said: “She has actually learned how to feel and how to live in, say, a more human form, and be compassionate, and be able to love Macon, her husband, be able to love her grandchild, be able to be integrated into society, and all Zoe wants is peace.”

“Lanterns” arrives as part of James Gunn’s rebooted DC universe, following “The Penguin” in setting a new tonal template. For Garret Dillahunt, who plays William Macon, Zoe’s husband, that meant a world that felt recognisable even as it bent toward the cosmic.

He said: “I think ‘Lanterns’ is going to fit in great in the new universe. I was a huge fan of the ‘Penguin’ series, which HBO Max also did, and I was thrilled that this also was kind of going down a grittier, weirdly realistic path. Even though it’s obviously not totally realistic, it feels like a world I recognize, and that’s something about DC Comics as well. For those of you that read comic books, it’s kind of known for being a little bit sort of grittier and dirtier. Like if it was filmed through a lens, it’s got like a tobacco wash in it. It’s a little dirty; it’s a little more down at heel, and I like that about this show.”

When it comes to Macon, Dillahunt sees him as a man of his time — and a man changed by love. He added: “I suppose Macon probably knows, you know, all the forms Zoe could take. Probably any gender, any race, any whatever, and so his mind is changed and opened by his love for this being, you know, and the care that she gave him and the extra life she gave him.”

Across its dusty fields and glowing rings, “Lanterns” keeps circling that same question Dillahunt puts at the heart of Macon’s arc: What do you do when everyone believes passionately that their way is the right way? How do we get along? How do we survive? How do we care for each other?