Lanterns returns this evening after last week’s crazy mid-season finale. I call it that not because there’s any sort of actual break between the two halves of the season, but because the primary plot of the show so far was resolved with the death of the Manhunter.
Lanterns stars Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, Earth’s one and only Green Lantern, and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, his understudy and grudging trainee. The two spent the first half of the season investigating the mysterious Manhunter, a synthetic otherworldly being who was hiding in Rushville, Nebraska. As the plot unfolded and the answers to the mystery became clearer, our heroes went from grudging allies to bitter rivals. Other forces appear to be manipulating events, and all of this leads toward the big revelation at the end of the first episode: In the present timeline, Hal Jordan is dead.
What Is ‘Lanterns’ About?
The official logline reads: “Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery with cosmic ties as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”
The two are drawn to Rushville, Nebraska, to investigate a murder. The season runs on dual timelines: a 2016 timeline in which Hal trains John, which so far has taken up the bulk of the story, and a present-day 2026 investigation set roughly a year after the events of Superman and Peacemaker Season 2. That’s where the season appears to be heading now beginning with Episode 6.
Chris Mundy (Ozark), Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen), and comics writer Tom King co-created the series and executive produce, with Mundy serving as showrunner. The supporting cast includes Kelly Macdonald as a local sheriff, Garret Dillahunt and Jason Ritter as father and son William and Billy Macon, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro, and Nathan Fillion reprising Guy Gardner from Superman.
What’s Happened So Far In ‘Lanterns’ Season 1?
So far, Lanterns is essentially a murder/conspiracy mystery wrapped in Green Lantern mythology, unfolding mainly in Rushville, Nebraska in 2016 and a present timeline, with some flashbacks to John Stewart’s childhood.
Episode 1 “Pilot”: Veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) is reluctantly training former soldier John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as his potential replacement. A cryptic warning from a backup “Halogram” stored in Hal’s ring sends them to Rushville, where a mass shooting at a high-school football game appears to have an extraterrestrial connection. They capture a man who turns out to be an alien; during interrogation he reveals that hostile forces are operating on Earth before blowing himself up. The pair also meet Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) and her wealthy, deeply suspicious father-in-law William Macon (Garret Dillahunt), who possesses an unusual amount of knowledge about aliens. Then comes the big twist: the story jumps to 2026, when John returns to Rushville and finds Hal dead in the football bleachers. His Green Lantern ring is missing.
Read my Lanterns Episode 1 recap and review here. Watch my video review here.
Episode 2 “Trust Fall”: Back in 2016, Hal continues John’s extremely unconventional training. John demonstrates potentially extraordinary abilities when he creates a small green bird construct that somehow continues existing even after he no longer has the ring. John is then abducted by a group led by an alien named Antaan, who tells him about the Manhunters—ancient synthetic predecessors to the Green Lantern Corps capable of disguising themselves as other species. Antaan believes a Manhunter responsible for annihilating his people is now hiding in human form somewhere in Rushville, and that Hal may know more about it than he’s admitting.
Meanwhile, Hal discovers that Macon has installed advanced alien-detection technology around town. When Hal confronts him about where he got it, in typical Hal fashion, one of Macon’s men shoots Hal. After a brief stay in a very creepy hospital (unsettlingly empty) Hal and John reunite. John ultimately tells Hal everything Antaan revealed, despite being warned not to. The episode ends with Hal traveling off-world, in his Lantern super-suit, to question his imprisoned former mentor, Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen). Before the credits roll, Sinestro warns Hal: if a Manhunter really survives, it’s only the second-biggest threat Hal is facing. He then asks him about John Stewart.
Read my Lanterns Episode 2 recap and review here. Watch my video review here.
Episode 3 “OutKast”: Last week’s episode largely abandons the present-day Rushville investigation to tell John Stewart’s origin story. We learn that John’s father, John Stewart Sr., was originally tested by Abin Sur’s ring but admitted that he was afraid, causing the ring to pass him over and ultimately choose Hal Jordan instead. The experience traumatized John Sr. and fractured the family, but it also brought the Guardians into their lives. A Guardian named Lianna tells John’s mother, Bernadette, that her infant son could someday become a Green Lantern, prompting Bernadette to spend John’s childhood deliberately training him to conquer fear, often through extreme and highly questionable (super unhinged!) methods. John eventually becomes a Marine sniper, but his military career ends in disgrace after Hal intervenes in a terrestrial conflict, putting John on a very different path.
Years later, John is summoned for an elaborate interview with Lianna, who reveals that the Guardians have been watching him for essentially his entire life. More importantly, John isn’t simply being recruited as Hal’s apprentice: the Guardians have lost faith in Hal and intend John to replace him. Hal is ordered to train John but is furious about being pushed aside, especially after learning that the Guardians prefer his replacement. When John returns home to tell his parents the news, Hal has already beaten him there and announced it himself. Outside, Hal makes his hostility clear, telling John that he doesn’t need a sidekick and that John will get his ring “over my dead body,” an ominous line given that the series has already shown us Hal’s apparent death in 2026.
Read my Lanterns Episode 3 recap and review here. Watch my video review here.
Episode 4 Recap “The Weenie”: Hal Jordan and John Stewart zero in on William Macon’s heavily fortified compound, believing his mysterious benefactor may be the Manhunter hiding in Rushville. Their investigation goes badly when they’re captured by Macon’s men, while the Guardians secretly pressure John to take Hal’s ring and replace him as Earth’s Green Lantern—an opportunity John ultimately refuses. Meanwhile, John’s relationship with Zoe deepens just before her truck is apparently obliterated by a satellite weapon, leading Hal and John to investigate Hector Hammond, only to discover he’s another red herring. The episode’s biggest twist comes at the end, when Hal realizes John isn’t grieving because he suspects Zoe survived—and deduces that Zoe herself is the Manhunter they’ve been hunting. The revelation further complicates Hal and John’s already strained partnership and leaves the mystery of what Zoe really wants wide open. The episode ends with Hal once again leaping from the driver’s seat of a moving vehicle and John crashing into a light post.
Episode 5 Recap: “Lights Out” finally reveals the full truth about Rushville and the Manhunter. Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan) is indeed the surviving Manhunter, created by the Guardians before they decided their robotic enforcers were too brutal and wiped them out. We also learn why Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) has been protecting Zoe: years earlier, Zoe saved her life when she first arrived in Rushville. With the town turning against Hal (Kyle Chandler), Zoe allows John (Aaron Pierre) to burn in the car wreck, then heals him in an attempt to get him to switch sides, promising him Hal’s Green Lantern ring once Hal is dead. Meanwhile, Antaan confronts William Macon (Garret Dillahunt), who attempts to pass himself off as the Manhunter but is killed when Antaan discovers he’s human. Zoe’s plan ultimately backfires when John seemingly goes along with her only to shoot her from a distance and rip out her crystalline heart, proving what she really is. But after finally getting everything he thought he wanted, John rejects it: he gives Zoe’s heart to Lianna, leaves Hal’s ring and lantern behind, and walks away from the Green Lantern Corps as Rushville lies devastated around them.
Read my Lanterns Episode 5 recap and review here. Watch my video review here.
Is ‘Lanterns’ Worth Watching?
Yes and no. That’s where I’m at with this show. I’m not tearing it apart like I did with the fourth season of Reacher, but I’m not singing its praises, either. It is, as the kids say, pretty “mid.”
That’s in spite of terrific casting across the board. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are wonderful and so is the supporting cast. I think my main critique is simply that I have a hard time really caring about the story itself. The mystery fell a little flat. The relationship between Hal and John never developed, going from “we don’t like each other” to “we really don’t like each other” which isn’t a particularly interesting arc.
Still, I’m curious how it all ends and what part Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner will have to play in the current timeline, which is where I suspect we are headed in Episode 6.
Who Stars In ‘Lanterns’ On HBO Max?
The main Lanterns cast is:
- Aaron Pierre — John Stewart
- Kyle Chandler — Hal Jordan
- Kelly Macdonald — Sheriff Kerry Kane
- Poorna Jagannathan — Zoe Macon
- Garret Dillahunt — William “Will” Macon
- Jason Ritter — Billy Macon
- Ulrich Thomsen — Sinestro
- Nathan Fillion — Guy Gardner
- Laura Linney — Lianna
- Jasmine Cephas Jones — Bernadette Stewart
- J. Alphonse Nicholson — John Stewart Sr.
- Paul Ben-Victor — Antaan
- Chris Coy — Waylon Sanders
Why ‘Lanterns’ Is A Big Deal For The DCU
So far, James Gunn’s DCU has been off to a rocky start. Superman was a hit, even though I found it a pretty mid-tier superhero movie, and Supergirl was a box office bomb thanks to its “scriptonite” as my colleague Paul Tassi so cleverly put it.
Peacemaker Season 2 is the best thing that DC has released since Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios. If they can pull this off, combining the gritty detective mystery and intrigue of True Detective with superhero shenanigans and a more cosmic plot, this could be exactly what the DCU needs to get back on its footing. I’ll be reviewing the series, so look for my episodic recaps every week. The show’s RT score has gone up to 94% from 90% last week, so they’re doing something right.
Then again, even if this is as good or better than Peacemaker, two mature live-action TV shows won’t be enough to revive DC at movie theaters, especially when the next movie coming to the big screen is hardly a family-friendly affair.
What’s Next For The DCU After ‘Lanterns’?
Clayface
Credit: Warner Bros
Clayface lands in movie theaters just weeks after the Lanterns October 4 finale. The movie hits the big screen on October 23. The movie is set in the Gotham universe, with Clayface one of the lesser-known and more terrifying Batman villains. The R-rated film is supposed to be quite scary, with body horror, violence and some nudity. This is more along the lines of The Penguin than Superman, and while I’m a huge fan of all things Gotham, hopefully Gunn can deliver on the lighthearted DC stuff sooner than later. Man Of Tomorrow, the sequel to Superman, comes out in July of 2027, with the next Batman film slated for 2028.
Aaron Pierre has been confirmed as part of the cast for Man Of Tomorrow, but so far there’s no apparent connection between Lanterns and Clayface.
What About ‘Lanterns’ Season 2?
While there’s no official renewal confirmation from HBO — the network appears to be waiting to see how the first season performs — the work has already begun on a follow-up. Lindelof confirmed that Mundy has already started a new writing room to brainstorm future seasons. Who returns in the cast and behind the scenes, if the show is renewed, remains to be seen. Lindelof is moving on to other projects, and reports suggest Christopher Cantwell could join as co-showrunner going forward.
Either way, it sounds like Season 1 will tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and an end, so even if this ends up being a one-season outing, we won’t have to deal with an unfinished story.
Are you looking forward to Lanterns? Be sure to check back on this blog and on my YouTube channel for my review of episode 2 this evening!
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