Lanterns Showrunners Break Silence On Hal Jordan’s Death: "Wait Until Episode 8"

The showrunner for HBO's Lanterns series opened up for the first time about Hal Jordan's death in the new DCU series. DC Studios is delivering the first live-action look at the Green Lantern Corps in 15 years, behind Aaron Pierre's John Stewart and Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan in the franchise's third HBO Max series. With the first episode now out as of August 16, fans are already deep in discussion about the shocking ending for the first new chapter in this story.

Lanterns showrunner Damon Lindelof opened up about Lanterns Episode 1 ending with the reveal that Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan had been killed. Speaking with Collider, Lindeloff shared his early feelings from when the idea was being developed, thinking that everyone would hate him and that it felt "gimmicky" to pull off. However, showrunner/creator Chris Mundy said the opposite, thinking that it would "infuse the entire story with a lot of emotionality" if the audience knew that Hal and John "were not in a good place" when Hal died:

"The first thing that, you know, Tom and I sort of looked at each other when we were even um kicking around the idea of killing Hal. And we're like, we can't do that. Everyone’s going to hate us, and it feels gimmicky. But Mundy actually was like, 'I don't think that it does feel gimmicky. I think that it will actually sort of infuse the entire story with a lot of emotionality, especially if the audience understands that John and Hal were not in a good place at the time that Hal died."

Lindelof reflected on characters like this not usually dying in the comic books, but expressed wanting to do "something that's supposed to be grounded." While he felt they would "still...get blamed for it," they came around on the idea, making it clear that he and the team are fans of the source material as well:

"Traditionally in comic books, my understanding is that these characters can’t die, but what if we're doing something that's supposed to be grounded, maybe this is something that we have to do? Then, we're like, 'Yeah, but we're still going to get blamed for it.' But we gradually started kind of coming around to it, and I think because we were so reluctant to do it, and because we’re fans, at the same time we get our turn to to run with the baton of these amazing characters, but also just as fans, Hal means something to us too."

From there, he analyzed how the audience could potentially react negatively to this moment after getting Hal Jordan back for only one episode and getting them "to fall in love with Kyle Chandler" before killing him off. He then told fans that they should wait to see how they feel "at the end of Episode 8," setting up plenty of intrigue for the rest of the season.

"So I think that we basically started reframing the question in terms of yes on Sunday night, are we willing to acknowledge that a lot of people are going to be angry that if we were watching this and not making it that we would be saying, I waited this this long for another live-action version of Hal, haven’t gotten him since the Ryan Reynolds film, and then basically 50 minutes after getting me to fall in love with Kyle Chandler you’re killing him off. [__] you. And I guess our feeling is let’s see how you feel at the end of episode 8. And if you still feel like it was exploitative or unnecessary or that it wasn’t exactly what had to happen in order for this story to get told, then we deserve it."

The end of Lanterns Episode 1 jumped forward a decade in the timeline to 2026, showing Aaron Pierre's John Stewart returning to Nebraska and reuniting with Kelly Macdonald's Officer Kerry Kane on a snowy night. From there, they walk to the football field and into the bleachers to find Chandler's Hal Jordan completely frozen and seemingly dead, leading to a new mystery for Stewart to solve 10 years after first being trained as a Green Lantern.

The first episode of Lanterns is now streaming on HBO Max.

Is Hal Jordan Really Dead After Lanterns Episode 1?

While the old saying that nobody ever truly dies in a comic book or comic book movie is worth considering, this moment has many wondering whether Hal Jordan will be gone permanently after this series. However, one notable comic run may set the stage for Hal to be brought back into the fold after Season 1 ends (which could happen after a writers' room was opened for Season 2).

In 2004 and 2005, Geoff Johns published the Green Lantern: Rebirth series, which revives Hal Jordan, clears his name of past villainy after he was possessed by Parallax (the villain from Ryan Reynolds' original 2011 Green Lantern movie), and restores the Green Lantern Corps. While Parallax is not confirmed for this HBO series yet, the plot is confirmed to include Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro, who plays a big role in that comic as well.

There, Sinestro reveals that he helped awaken Parallax to infect Hal Jordan, whose soul is bound to the vengeance spirit known as the Spectre. Earth's heroes and other Lanterns help separate Hal from the entity, freeing him from Parallax and reuniting his soul with his body so he can become a living Green Lantern, defeat Parallax, and banish Sinestro.

HBO's Lanterns set up this story to potentially be adapted in two ways. Firstly, Hal's body was frozen in place and conserved for his possible resurrection at a later date. Secondly, a younger version of Hal's consciousness from 2006 was uploaded into the Lantern ring (which appeared in front of John Stewart), who treated Hal with respect and questioned what his older self had done in the 10 years since that time. The personality shift could also be attributed to Parallax infecting Hal at some point, leading to a different version of him being brought back later

While some canon moments from the comics do not make it into the show, this comic story is one that many diehard DC fans are watching closely as Lanterns continues through the rest of its first seasonl