HBO might as well change the name of Lanterns to Lantern, because by the end of its very first episode, only one of its Green Lanterns is still alive.
The series kicks off in 2016, with Earth’s Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and his trainee John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) investigating a shooting in Rushville, Nebraska. In the episode’s final moments Lanterns flashes ahead to 2026. In the present-day timeline, John returns to Rushville, alone, and reunites with Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald). She brings him to the football field where the Rushville shooting took place and shows him that Hal is sitting in the stands… with a gunshot wound to the head.
That’s right: Lanterns kills Hal Jordan, iconic Green Lantern, right out the gate. Here’s what that means for the rest of the show, and how we could see him again.
Is Hal Jordan out of Lanterns for good?
Kyle Chandler in “Lanterns.”
Credit: John Johnson / HBO Max
Here’s the good news: Audiences haven’t seen the last of Hal in Lanterns. The show’s trailer is full of footage of Hal that we don’t get to see in episode 1, including him visiting his old mentor Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) in prison. That means a good chunk of the rest of the season will take place in 2016, with Hal and John still trying to solve the murder. Whether the show will alternate between the two timelines or simply advance in chronological order remains to be seen.
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There could be a way to still see Hal, even in death. John learns this in episode 1, when he speaks to a younger version of Hal whose consciousness was uploaded to his Power Ring, then given a little extra boost of sentience by the ring itself. As this version of Hal tells John, Lanterns should be backing up these iterations of themselves weekly, a duty Hal has clearly let fall to the wayside over the last 10 years.
Even though Hal hasn’t been backing himself up, this copy of him still exists. That means it would still exist in 2026, and John could access it as he tries to solve Hal’s own murder mystery. But there’s just one small hitch in that plan. Hal isn’t wearing his ring when John and Kerry find his body. Where could it be?
Based on Superman, we know that Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) is now Earth’s Green Lantern. While he and Hal have different rings, maybe he would know where to find Hal’s. Fillion is confirmed to star in Lanterns, so he’ll be figuring into the story at some point, likely in the present when he is a Lantern himself.
However, Gardner’s status as Lantern raises more fascinating questions about John and Hal (pre-death, that is). If both of them were alive between 2016 and 2026, why isn’t one of them Earth’s Green Lantern? What happened in these 10 years to make the Green Lantern Corps pass the title onto Gardner? And of course, the most pressing question of all: Who killed Hal?
