A new DCU trailer is setting the stage for the death of one major DC superhero whose alias was first introduced in Superman. Following the release of the Superman spin-off film Supergirl this summer, the next DC Studios project fans have to look forward to is Lanterns. The upcoming HBO show is a grounded take on the Green Lantern mythology featuring Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, but the latest trailer for Lanterns really wants everyone to think that one of them is dying.
Both Jordan and Stewart are well-known Green Lanterns in DC Comics, and DC Studios is turning them into a mentor and protege in the Lanterns. Jordan is the older, wiser, and more jaded Lantern, while Stewart is the promising young trainee with a strong moral compass. The relationship between the two is begrudging, with Jordan reluctantly training Stewart, while Stewart is skeptical about Jordan's worthiness to bear the ring.
What the marketing for Lanterns seems to be building towards is that only one of these two Green Lanterns will be left standing by the end, and it seems like the one to die will be Hal Jordan.
When Lanterns begins in 2016, it turns out Jordan has already been operating as a Green Lantern for decades, and he is older and more grizzled when he starts training Stewart. There's a sense that Jordan is no longer at the top of his game, but isn't willing to admit it. A foreshadowing moment in the trailer sees Jordan tell Stewart: "I've been doing this since you were a baby. And the only way you're going to get this ring is over my dead body."
Lanterns is building upon its marketing motto that "only one can wear the ring," and with Jordan preferring death to giving up his spot to Stewart, it seems like that may be exactly what's in store for him.
Much of the tension between Stewart and Jordan stems from Jordan being forced to train the former as his own replacement. Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy shared with Men's Health that "our show is in a lot of ways about replacement," which inherently suggests Jordan is set for retirement (but may be forced into it one way or another):
"Our show is in a lot of ways about replacement—when should someone step aside and when is it time for the next person to take the reins? That push and pull between those two characters is really important."
Stewart is seen speaking to Laura Linney's mystery character in the trailer, telling her, "I'll do this better than he's ever done it before," before she encourages him to "go and get it," further backing the idea that John Stewart will be the last Lantern standing.
With the reveal that Lanterns will be split across two timelines, 2016 and 2026, there are still a lot of questions around exactly what the 2026 timeline will entail. The buddy-cop training era between Jordan and Stewart appears to be firmly set back in 2016, and there's been no real indication of whether Jordan is still around in the 2026 timeline.
Mundy dropped a hint to Entertainment Weekly that Jordan and Stewart are the "old guard and the heir apparent," but that this dynamic is something they specifically lean into in "that early time period," with no indication of what their relationship is like in 2026 (if there is one):
"The main worry being that Hal is now forced to train his own replacement. John is the backup Lantern in the event anything happens to Hal. It’s “the old guard and the heir apparent,” Mundy notes. "We lean into that tension quite a bit in that early time period.”
Adding more questions to the fray is the presence of Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner in Lanterns, aka the Green Lantern fans met in Superman. Notably, Gardner was the active Green Lantern in Superman, but he made no mention of any other Lanterns. It's still unclear how Gardner came to be in this position, and there's a theory that if Hal dies in 2016, Guy might be the one to replace him.
On top of that, Aaron Pierre has been cast in the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, while there's been no mention of Chandler returning as Hal Jordan. It's seeming more and more likely that Jordan is somehow deposed by the end of Lanterns. The question is whether he retires willingly or if his stubbornness is the death of him.
Will DC Studios Really Kill off Hal Jordan in Lanterns?
While the evidence is mounting that Hal Jordan's role in Lanterns may be one and done, the character has such an important history with DC that it's questionable whether DC Studios would kill off one of its major heroes so soon.
There's a world in which Jordan sees a promising replacement in Stewart and decides that the ring is in better hands with his protege, perhaps exiting the story to live out a peaceful retirement. However, the threat of Sinestro in Lanterns and his relationship with Jordan seem like they could be high-stakes enough to be the end of the older hero.
Green Lantern Corps rules in the comics typically designate one Green Lantern hero per sector, but in the comics, Earth has always been a major exception to the rule, allowing multiple ring-bearing Lanterns to operate. While Lanterns seems to be pushing the idea that there can only be one Green Lantern, it still has a lot of explaining to do regarding whether Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner can all exist simultaneously in the DCU, and if not, how that succession plays out.
Lanterns is a more grounded and gritty show than anything the DCU has done thus far, and with this tonal shift, there's no telling how dire things could get. Killing off a character, even one as important as Hal Jordan, doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility, particularly in a show like Lanterns.
