New Lanterns Fan Theory May Confirm Who the Real Villain of the DC Series Is

Lanterns is doing more as a detective mystery show than it is as a DC superhero origin story. To the credit of show creators Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof (LOST), and Tom King (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow), that mystery keeps viewers hooked on the series week-to-week, and keeps it alive online as fans share their best guesses and theories about the biggest reveals and twists. So far, Lanterns has managed to keep its main antagonist in the shadows; we’ve been told the dreaded Manhunter could be any character we’ve met.

But is the Manhunter really the biggest threat? Even Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) doesn’t seem to think so, as he teased John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) being of bigger concern to Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler). But other fans have been stringing together other clues pointing to a different villain being the actual big bad, hiding in plain sight.

Lanterns Theory Says The Guardians Are The Real Villains

In Lanterns Episode 3, “OutKast”, we learn the backstory of John Stewart and why he was raised to be a Green Lantern. One game-changing reveal was that John’s “chosen one” status came from a deal his mother struck with one of the Guardians, Lianna (Laura Linney). John has suddenly become a much more interesting figure, as Episode 3 left a lot of fans questioning what the Guardians’ ultimate goal is for taking humans into the Green Lantern Corps.

“Control” seems to be the keyword here: Hal Jordan is clearly not firmly under the Guardians’ control; right now, that seems to be driving their decision to replace Hal with a new human candidate. Hal’s major accomplishments as Green Lantern seem to suggest that he’s proven humans are very capable as Lanterns, but that they are also just as unpredictable. Lianna’s encounters with both John Stewart and his mother, Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones), further underscore that humans are more emotionally complex (contradictory?) than the Guardians want.

Other theories claim the Guardians hijacked control of the power rings at some point, either before or after Sinestro killed one of them. Either way, there are serious questions about how and why Abin Sur crashed on Earth and what mission he might’ve been. The ring selecting Hal Jordan may represent the discrepancy between what the emerald power wants and what the leaders of the Green Lanterns want. John Stewart’s entire arc may be learning the difference between duty to an institution (the Green Lanterns, the military, his family) and duty to a purer sense of justice and order. And either he and Hal (or both) may have to go through the Guardians to achieve that.

Lanterns airs on HBO and streams on HBO Max.

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