James Hawes is the director of the DC series Lanterns who also directed the first season of Slow Horses.
Hawes directed the first two episodes of Lanterns and served as an executive producer. He was hired partly because of his work on Slow Horses, the spy-thriller series that was one of the tonal references for Lanterns. The show’s creators wanted a grounded, character-driven approach rather than a purely cosmic space adventure.
Hawes’ involvement is especially significant because Lanterns was conceived as an Earth-based detective story. His experience with tense investigations, institutional conflict, and dry character drama suited the partnership between veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan and recruit John Stewart.
He is not the only director on the season. Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov also directed episodes. Hawes’ specific distinction is that he directed episodes 1 and 2, including the pilot. The earlier version of the Green Lantern television project had a different director attached, but that was before the current series was redeveloped.