Lanterns
Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max
It’s pretty clear at this point that the DCU has a much-needed hit on its hands with Lanterns, the HBO series that explores the relationship between two famous Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart. The concept felt a bit odd when pitched, a murder mystery in a small town. Now? We know that the victim is Hal Jordan himself, as we saw in the closing moments of the episode in a brief 10-years-later segment.
Most fans seem to love the premiere, as early audience scores indicate, though some are upset about Lanterns killing off its most famous Lantern in the very first episode. But is Hal Jordan actually dead? The answer is likely complicated.
To state the obvious, Hal Jordan being dead in 2026 does not at all mean that Kyle Chandler, the show’s clear standout, is not going to be in the rest of the season, given that the majority of it is likely going to take place in 2016 or the ensuing decade. So he’s sticking around in that sense.
But in terms of him being dead? Well, there are already theories. Comic theories, so even if you know show spoilers, maybe you don’t want to know these.
We’re talking Parallax here, from a comic run from 1994. In it, Hal Jordan is driven mad with grief when his hometown is destroyed. He then goes on to destroy the Green Lantern Corps, among other things, and becomes the villain Parallax.
Later, in subsequent storylines, it’s revealed that Hal Jordan was actually possessed by Parallax, which is an ancient entity embodying the yellow light of fear. During The Final Night storyline, Hal Jordan sacrifices himself to reignite Earth’s sun (long story), but when his soul isn’t at peace, he returns as a hero once more to make up for his past actions. This all continued in DC Rebirth in 2016, where Sinestro is hosted by Parallax and faces off against Jordan, who ends up destroying the Sinestro Corps base, Warworld. The storyline also involves Superman by the end.
Okay so, that’s a lot, admittedly. But you can see the pieces here. There is a way for Hal Jordan to return to life, and we do not know what happened in the ensuing years, and how much it may or may not resemble this comic storyline. Given how wild and cosmic some storylines can become, you could imagine how they might do a slimmed-down version of say, Rebirth, as the baseline for the story here. Hal is dead, and we know Sinestro is in the series, and while the DCU entry here is meant to be “grounded,” it’s full of aliens and the Corps. itself is cosmic by nature. So no, an ancient entity of fear does not seem impossible to integrate here, or at least be adapted in some way.
Lanterns
Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max
Or, he’s dead. Chandler appears all season, but he still ends up dead. We already know John Stewart is meant to be the main Green Lantern in the DCU, and he’s going to be in Man of Tomorrow, the next Superman movie, although clearly he is not a Lantern yet in 2016 (the first Superman takes place in 2015, and has Guy Gardner as Green Lantern, which very much plays into the Lanterns story as well).
The comics have an open door for saving Hal, though I mean, comics kill almost every hero and bring them back to life at some point. We need more information before we declare things one way or the other, however.
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