Lanterns May Be Skipping a Major DC Story After This Week’s Episode, But We Still Want the Answer

Spoilers for Lanterns Episodes 1-5 below: The fifth episode of Lanterns, titled “Lights Out,” was the DC Universe series’ most eventful so far. As the conflict between two alien factions ravaged the town of Rushville, Nebraska, the escalating tension between Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) also exploded into violence.  After taking Hal’s Green Lantern power ring during a brutal brawl with him, John killed the synthetic alien Manhunter that used the human guise of Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan). However, rather than speaking the Green Lantern oath and taking Hal’s place as the Lantern of Earth’s space sector, as the Guardian of the Universe calling herself Lianna (Laura Linney) had told John he could, he returned the ring to her, stating that he no longer wanted to be corrupted by the desire for its power as he had been by his parents’ abuse and as Hal also was.

These events seemingly concluded Lanterns‘ 2016 storyline, with HBO’s preview for Episode 6 suggesting that the remainder of the first season will be mostly focused on the 2026 storyline in which John returns to Rushville to investigate Hal’s apparent murder, which was introduced with a flash-forward sequence at the end of the show’s pilot. This arc will include a guest appearance by Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), who was established as Earth’s modern Lantern in the 2025 film Superman. On the episode of Lanterns: The Official Podcast released alongside the pilot, co-creator Tom King confirmed that Guy is using Hal’s old ring in 2026, leading fans to wonder how the famously obnoxious hero will fit into the show’s mystery plot.

Lanterns Needs to Reveal How Guy Gardner Got the Ring

The trailer and other marketing materials for Lanterns suggest that John and Guy already know, or are at least aware of, one another, when the latter enters the series and Guy’s roles in Superman and Peacemaker similarly made it clear that he’s been publicly operating as a Lantern for some time. This, and the simple fact that Lanterns Season 1 is mainly John and Hal’s story, mean that it’s unlikely the show will devote too much attention to Guy’s origin. But given how the series’ plot has progressed so far, it does need to explain how he got the ring.

The series has focused heavily on the Guardians’ careful yet flawed process for selecting Lantern candidates and between this and their eventual disdain for Hal’s tactics, viewers familiar with Superman and/or Peacemaker have wondered why Guy, who is arguably even more brash and opinionated, was chosen. Indeed, Superman already showed Guy violating one of the same Guardian-imposed rules that Hal previously broke, when he intervened in the war between the human nations of Boravia and Jarhanpur. Unless the Guardians have become much less strict and less manipulative in the intervening years, they would need very specific reasons to recruit Guy and likely have plans in place to control him more closely than they did Hal.

Guy Gardner Complicates Lanterns’ Murder Mystery

A key detail in the Lanterns pilot’s flash-forward scene further complicates this mystery.  When Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) shows John Hal’s frozen body at the Rushville football field, John examines one of Hal’s hands, seemingly looking for the ring, which is not there. Given what viewers have learned in the episodes since, this is surprising for several reasons. First of all, it suggests that John believed there was a chance Hal was again a Lantern in 2026, which would not have been expected given his falling out with the Guardians and the other events in 2016. It’s possible John may instead have been concerned that Hal had fallen even further from grace and somehow taken another Lantern’s ring by force, but this contrasts with his apparently genuine grief for Hal, which indicates that the pair’s relationship had improved over the years. While it’s likewise conceivable that John was simply looking to see if Hal had any power ring with him when he died, it’s implied that he was expecting to see the same specific ring. If that is the case and 2026 John is in fact already aware of Guy’s Lantern status, one wonders why he doesn’t know that the latter is using that ring.

Early on in the Green Lantern comics, the Guardians did only allow there to be one active Lantern per sector and forbid Lanterns from different sectors from working together. But both these rules have been out of use for most of the franchise’s history. When the comics versions of Guy and John are recruited to serve as Hal’s emergency replacements, both are given their own power rings. Since then, two or more of the three have often operated simultaneously along with later recruits like Kyle Rayner. Lanterns from elsewhere in the galaxy likewise began to collaborate and even operate in teams. It seems increasingly likely that the “one ring, one Lantern, per sector,” rule will also be repealed, or at least loosened, in the DCU continuity by the end of Season 1, especially given that both John and Guy are set to appear in the upcoming Superman sequel film, Man of Tomorrow. But it possibly still being in effect at the beginning of the 2026 arc raises several tantalizing questions, including several about the Guardians’ plans for and dynamic with Guy that need to be answered.   

How do you think Guy got Hal’s Lantern ring? Let us know in the comments.

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