Every Major Lanterns Theory DCU Fans Are Debating After the Series Premiere

Lanterns has premiered on HBO and it is officially a hit. The series is expanding the scope of the DC Universe franchise, while also expanding upong the stylistic and tonal ranges of DC superhero stories adapted for television. So far, the True Detective format is serving Lanterns very well, creating major intrigue through some immediate mysteries, as well as complex character arcs and conflicts that span multiple decades. If all that wasn’t enough, a major character death was thrown in for good measure.

While the premiere episode may have been a big success, Lanterns has also set up some pretty high stakes for the rest of the season. There are already a lot of big questions that need to be answered, and some bold swings have been taken that could have massive impact on the future of the DCU. Here are the biggest theories and predictions about the rest of Lanterns‘ season, after watching the premiere.

6. That Isn’t the Real Hal Jordan’s Body

Lanterns‘ permiere ended with a time jump from 2016 to 2026, where John Stewart discovers his (former?) mentor Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) dead in Rushville, Nebraska. That cliffhanger has set off a massive wave of reaction from DC fans, who are bewildered by the fact that the most famous Green Lantern of all got killed off so early. Or did he?

The biggest Lanterns theory going around right now is that it is not actually Hal Jordan’s body that John Stewart and Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) found in Rushville. The premiere made a point to let us know that no less than 14 alien species can mimick human form beyond all means of detection. The “Weeks Ahead” trailer for Lanterns also potentially reveals the twist that Hal steals a body to use as a decoy. The first episode also firmly establishes that Hal has a penchant for going AWOL, and faking his death would be gauranteed way for him to go “off the reservation.” So far, the showrunners behind Lanterns are doubling-down on Hal’s death being permanent, but should we take them at face value? Probably not.

5. Hal Jordan Will Return As Parallax

In the 1990s, DC fans got rocked by one of the biggest superhero heel turns ever, when Hal Jordan turned evil. During the “Death and Rebirth of Superman” story arc, Hal’s home of Coast City got wiped out by one of the replacement Supermen (the Cyborg), who stepped up when Clark Kent was killed battling Doomsday. The tragic loss of his home broke Hal; he went to war against the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps, storming through space collecting power rings until he reached the GL homeworld of Oa, where he killed his rival Sinestro in a brutal duel, and stole the energy of the Central Power Battery for the rings for himself, leading to a cosmic battle to destroy an rebuild the universe in the DC crossover event Zero Hour. Later, it was revealed that Hal had been possessed by the embodiement of fear, “Parallax,” whose yellow light is the main rival to the Green Lanterns’ emerald willpower. Hal was cured, and Parallax went on to partner with disgraced Green Lantern Sinestro, who created an entire “Yellow Lantern Corps” as his army.

That’s a lot of lore for Lanterns to ignore, and after Episode 1, a lot of fans believe Hal’s death is just meant to throw us off the scent of where things are headed. On a character level, fans speculate that there are clues that Hal’s state of mind has been eroding for some time. He may have become subseptable to fear when he found out John was his replacement – or maybe John was tapped to inherit the ring because Hal had become corrupted by a force like Parallax somewhere in the 10 years between his last upload and when John first meets the ring’s hologram backup of Hal, “Halogram.” Either way, many fans believe that Hal’s “death” is just a stepping stone to a much bigger arc for his character.

4. Guy Gardner Is A Substitute

Lanterns is telling a deep story about how Hal Jordan and John Stewart clash over the right to wear the Power Ring and serve as the Green Latern for Earth’s sector of space. However, the DCU has already established that there is a human serving as the Green Lantern of Earth sector, and wielding the ring Hal and John were competing for. Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner has popped up in James Gunn’s Superman (2025) and the Peacemaker spinoff, and is set to return in Lanterns. And it’s going to be one hell of a cameo, as DCU fans are now freaking out to learn how Guy got the ring.

The popular theory right now is that Guy Gardner isn’t actulaly a full-fledged member of the Green Lanterns, but is rather the substitute or placeholder assigned by the Guardians until John Stewart steps up. This is kind of an obvious one, really: we know that Guy already has the ring in 2025 when Superman takes place, and we know from Lanterns‘ time jump to 2026 that both Hal and John are ringless for the period Guy is active. John Stewart actor Aaron Pierre joining the cast of Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2027) suggests he’ll fulfill his “destiny” in this HBO series and claim the ring, leaving poor Guy as just another civilian with a bad haircut. (And don’t worry, DC lore has alrady set a precendent for how Guy still remains superhero after the ring.)

3. The Guardians Are Covering Up A Crime

The real magic trick of the Lanterns premiere is that it establishes and entire world, characters and lore, while also leaving massive gaps in that lore which creates intrigue and not just confusion. Writers Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King worked the narrative so well that you have to step back and really wonder, only later, about all the clues that Hal Jordan has had a major falling out with his employers, the Guardians of the Universe. The question is: Why has Hal stepped back from the Green Lantern Corps?

DC fans how know their Green Lantern lore have already jumped to one theory: The Manhunter Massacre. Before the Guardians created the Green Lanterns, they used an army of robotic “peacekeepers” known as the “Manhunters” to keep peace throughout the galaxy. However, eventually the Manhunters suffered a “glitch” in their programming; the lack of emotional feeling or nuance led the Manhunters to extreme conclusions about what maintaing “order” meant, and eventually they deemed organic too chaotic and in need of purging. An entire space sector (666) was eradicated by the Manhunters before they were stopped, and certain races or organizations have never forgotten it. In the comics, the event led to the creation of the Green Lanterns (cops with emotions, but not controlled by them), but it also set the seeds for the birth of the “Red Lanterns,” rage-fueled marauders who were born in the ruins of Sector 666.

DC fans theorize that Lanterns is telling a story in which one cop (Hal) discovers that the powers that be behind his department have dirty and secrets they’re trying to cover up. Hal being Hal, he would understandbly object to towing the company line, leading the Guardians to try and silence him. First, they may try to replace him (John), but failing that, more drastic measures may have to be explored…

2. Black Hand Is the Killer

When actor Garret Dillahunt was cast as “William Macon,” DC fans had some big questions. The role seemed like a cover for one of Green Lantern’s most nefarious foes, Black Hand. Black Hand (aka “William Derek Hand”) was born into a family business of death, as his father was a coroner and funeral home director. William started exhibiting signs of deep sociopathic tendencies, killing things and preserving the corpses through taxidermy. Eventually, an alien named Atrocitus (a survivor of Sector 666) came to Earth and left a “Cosmic Rod” behind, which can absorb energy and redirect it as a weapon. William took the rod and became the villain “Black Hand,” who could feed off a Green Lantern’s ring energy and weild it against them. Black Hand became the human link for the death entity Nekron, and the key to helping it unleash the cosmic apocalypse known as “Blackest Night,” wherein black Power Rings re-animated the dead as Nekron’s army.

Lanterns fans think that Dillahunt’s “William Macon” will be a contemporary flip on Black Hand. Macon’s xenophobic views and wealthy elite family may not be exactly like the comics, but it is close enough to believe in the reveal that he’s been pursuing a weapon (or arsenal) that can kill aliens (like the Cosmic Rod) and had to go through Hal Jordan to achieve his goals. Even if the season ends with William’s death, it could just be the setup for a much bigger Green Lantern DCU arc to come.

1. Death is the Doorway to Blackest Night

As stated, “Blackest Night” was one of the biggest events in DC Comics between 2009 and 2010. The storyline was a culmination of the “War of Light” arc that saw the Green Lanterns challenged by rival corps (Yellow, Red, Blue, Violet, Indigo, and Orange), only for all the armies of the emotional spectrum to be blindsided by the emergence of the Black Lanterns, an army of re-animated corpses (many of them superheros and villains that were dead) who all weilded Black Power Rings and served the evil entity Nekron. Nekron’s goal was the elmimination of sentient life in the galaxy, and it nearly succeeded. The Green Lanterns, warriors of the other corps, and the DC heroes all battled to save the galaxy.

The DC Universe franchise still needs a major event to tie the franchise together. Marvel had Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet; DC has Nekron and the Blackest Night. Both offer similar threats: a villain who is more a force of nature than a person, hellbent on pruning the universe of life. Blackest Night folds in the added wrinkle of having DC heroes having to contend with the sight of loved ones or colleagues they lost being corrupted into zombie soldiers; that army could conceivably be led by Hal Jordan (if he stays dead), which would immediately make it a very personal fight for John Stewart and the other Lanterns.

Lanterns airs Sunday nights on HBO and streams on HBO Max.

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