Even before Lanterns had cast its titular roles, the fan theories about the DCU TV series were starting to form. Some of it was just wishful thinking, but that slowly morphed into fan expectation for some, as the hopes of seeing the “Blackest Night” storyline play out on the screen started to seem possible to some. The theories continued as well after the show began to cast its key roles, especially when actors were confirmed for roles that didn’t seem to have a basis in the pages of DC Comics. It’s to be expected that fans might assume when this happens that it’s a secret being kept; after years of elusive casting and hidden details in superhero movies, it’s almost a given.
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The key example here was when The Wire star Paul Ben-Victor was confirmed to star in Lanterns as the character Antaan; it came with a description that seemed to point elsewhere. Described as “an extraterrestrial devoted to exposing the truth and exacting vengeance against those who wronged his people,” plus having a “deep and unrelenting hatred for the law,” the theory began to take hold that this Antaan might secretly be the Red Lantern Atrocitus, a character who would expand the Lantern mythology in many ways by simply appearing. This week’s episode of Lanterns, though, not only shredded that theory to bits, but made it clear fans can’t keep expecting exactly what they want.
The DCU Was Never Going to Bring in the Red Lanterns Like This
It’s easy to see why DC fans jumped and then clung to the theory that Antaan wasn’t who he seemed to be. The central plot thread of the larger series has been about the hunt for the last surviving Manhunter, the entities created by the Guardians of the Universe who preceded the Green Lanterns. Much like the comics, the Manhunters in the DCU went wrong and did some messed-up stuff.
When Antaan made his debut in Lanterns and revealed his reasoning behind wanting to find and eliminate the Manhunter, it only made fans who bought into the Atrocitus fan theory dig their heels in. Again, it’s not hard to see why they felt this way, since Atrocitus’ own backstory in DC canon has the exact same beats: his people were killed by the Manhunters, an event that would drive him and later ignite his rage enough to start the Red Lantern Corps.
So when this week’s episode of Lanterns arrived, and Antaan not only is revealed to not be Atrocitus at all, but also dies a somewhat humiliating death at the hands of Hal Jordan (his death was even revealed in one of the show’s trailers, sans context, of course), it threw a big bucket of water on this fan theory. Antaan wasn’t secretly this big bad with major Green Lantern lore implications; he was exactly the character that the team at DC Studios said he would be. But it also begs the question: Was Lanterns ever going to even touch an expansion of the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum?
Lanterns Is Proving That Fan Theories Can’t Drive Expectations
The fun of water-cooler television like Lanterns is in the theories; there’s no question about it, but it has to be on the terms of the show itself. Three major story points that have been at the heart of Lanterns have been: “Who is the Manhunter?” “What’s going to happen with the Green Lantern ring?” and “Who killed Hal Jordan?” Those three questions alone should have been enough to fuel endless discussion and speculation, but the tantalizing “what if” about how Antaan might secretly be something else was too much.
From the jump, Lanterns has been billed as a grounded, Earth-bound story about the titular characters that was inspired by True Detective. That said, Atrocitus’ storyline does lead him to our planet as a means of sparking the “Blackest Night” prophecy, but the only thing that has pointed toward Antaan being this secret supervillain in the show…. was fans jumping to conclusions.
Though there was no real hint at all about Antaan secretly being Atrocitus, the presence of another character may very well make the far-fetched Lanterns theories take another form. Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro has only briefly appeared in the series, but given that character’s place in DC lore, it’s only a matter of time before fans begin to wonder about what comes next for this villain. Sinestro can only sit in a prison cell for so long before his ambitions send him elsewhere, and the anticipation of him getting to that place and perhaps reclaiming a yellow ring will no doubt be on the minds of many as we reach the end of the season.
To that end, the expansion of the Green Lantern mythology is certainly still a possibility for the DCU at large, but Lanterns itself was never going to do it immediately. The series had to lay the groundwork for its own story, introduce a slew of new characters and their own origins and histories, and that was before it even considered flying into space for a brief sequence. As fun as fan theories can be, expectation and realism should hold them back to a degree; that said, the future of Lanterns is already being considered, so expect them to fly fast and freely in just a few weeks when the season ends.
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Courtesy of Paramount+ / Rotten Tomatoes
