‘Lanterns’ finale: Creators on John Stewart’s journey, Halogram

This story contains spoilers for Episode 8 of HBO Max “lanterns.”

From the moment Tom King and DC Studios’ James Gunn first talked about a Green Lantern show, they envisioned John Stewart as the kind of hero who could cause excitement and turn the tide of any battle upon his arrival.

“The idea was to create a character as compelling and compelling as Thor in the Marvel universe,” “Lanterns” co-creator King said during a recent video call. “Someone who comes to a movie with thunder and… the audience [just] When they arrive you scream because you are in love with that character… [for] the set of strengths they have, but the integrity of that character.”

This hero officially takes flight in Sunday’s “Lanterns” finale.

John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) takes on the role of Earth’s newest Green Lantern in episode 8 of the HBO Max superhero crime drama, titled “Dirt and Stars.” After solving the mystery of the death of his predecessor, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), Stewart claims Jordan’s ring of power as his own, swears his oath, and sets off on his next adventure. (A second season of “Lanterns” has not been announced, but the character will appear in Gunn’s upcoming “Superman” sequel, “Man of Tomorrow.”)

Co-created by King, Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy, “Lanterns” introduces Jordan as a grizzled veteran member of the Green Lantern Corps, intergalactic space cops armed with a special ring that allows them to manifest objects and manipulate energy.

Stewart is a new Green Lantern member, but when an investigation into the whereabouts of an escaped killer alien robot goes awry, they go their separate ways.

“One of the great things about the canonical Green Lanterns is that, technically speaking, there is a single ring attributed to this particular sector where the Earth falls,” Lindelof says of one of the show’s central conflicts.

The creative team knew from the beginning that Stewart would be the one to carry that ring at the end of the season, but the idea that Stewart would be a child prodigy whose parents pre-determined his path to becoming the next Green Lantern evolved over time.

“We [decided] It will be the first part of John’s life [about] “He’s coming to terms with the fact that he doesn’t really want the ring, or that he doesn’t want the ring under these circumstances,” says Lindelof, adding: “Then it must have been a period when he was living his dream. … Then, and only then, it was like he could clear it all up and get back to a healthy way of wanting the ring.”

In the comics, Green Lanterns are known for the oaths they recite while charging their rings or to reaffirm their allegiance to the group. In “Lanterns,” Stewart creates his own version of himself that acknowledges his journey and perspective on becoming a Green Lantern.

“We talked about it a lot in the room, but there was a sense in that moment that his relationship with the Guardians had changed,” Mundy says, referring to the immortal aliens who created the Green Lantern Corps.

In the end, Hal, on the left, was able to teach John lessons that no one else could teach him.

(John Johnson/HBO Max)

The Guardians once viewed Stewart as the ideal replacement for Jordan because he was willing to blindly follow orders, but when he received Jordan’s ring it was clear that Stewart had no plans to commit to the Guardians or the Green Lantern Corps in this way, and the writers wanted his oath to reflect that.

“We wanted John to take [the role] “Although Hal didn’t educate him as well as he should have,” Mundy says, “he taught him lessons that no one else could teach him. … [Including] How do you have to be your own person even when you work for this organization?

Along with his unconventional path to becoming a Green Lantern, Stewart also possesses a unique lantern forged by Jordan’s disgraced mentor Sinestro to recharge his ring.

The “Lanterns” showrunner was coy when asked if the sinister origins of this lantern would have unintended consequences for Stewart.

“I would say this is full of possibilities,” Mundy says.

In separate interviews, Mundy, Lindelof and King discussed the “Lanterns” finale, Stewart and Jordan’s bittersweet reconciliation and the show’s fiercely protective mothers. His comments have been edited for clarity and length.

Since the “real” Hal is killed in 2026, his relationship with John remains unresolved. john shareS. After working with the Halogram, a backup version of 2006 Hal’s consciousness for a moment, the mystery is solved, but can you fix the lack of proper closure for them?

Mundy: We kind of talked about this as a love story between these guys, but for them to really come together, one of them has to die. Even during Halogram’s time on the show, he never called John “Little”. He always called her “intern”. Until the last moment… “I love you too, Junior.” There’s something bittersweet about two people we’ve spent so much time together not being able to fully spend time together.

King: I think it’s this Sinestro subplot that’s implied between Halogram and the final Hal we get. It’s obvious from the comics, but Hal’s best friend, his mentor, the person who trained him, betrayed everything he trusted, and Hal had to put him away. I think the trauma of that moment closed Hal down. This hurt him…so he couldn’t see John for who he was, and he couldn’t listen to John as he should. [With the Halogram] John eventually meets a Hal who hasn’t been through this, and they can have conversations they couldn’t have before. John can begin to feel the empathy Hal has denied him and see who Hal truly is.

Lindelof: I like the idea of ​​this version of Hal and John being unresolved. No apology. There is no forgiveness. The only conclusion John can get comes from this previous version of Hal, who has a lot of sympathy and empathy not only for John, but also for himself. Obviously this is a crazy sci-fi superhero series, but this feels more true to life. It’s like when someone you love is gone and you find a note they wrote or an old birthday card and you extract new meaning from it, even if it’s from an earlier version.

Viewers learn some stories about the love between Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) and Hal.

(John Johnson/HBO Max)

Why was it important to include more of 2026 Hal Jordan’s life before his death in the finale?

Lindelof: The only taste we get directly from it [before this] In the restaurant scene where John comes to apologize and doesn’t get one. But towards the end of that scene, after John hits Hal and Hal says, “Don’t let anyone know you’re here,” there is a glimpse that something has changed in this man. It’s one thing to have Kerry tell us they’re in love or hear Hal’s “buttercup” voicemail, but I think the audience needed to see and experience that. Hal is not a changed man in 2026, but he is an evolved man. And there is a real tragedy inherent in all the decisions he makes, because we know that all of these decisions lead him to become a corpse in the stands at a football game. The subtle differences between Kyle playing the older Hal versus the Halogram Hal really come into sharp relief in the finale.

It is revealed that due to Noah being a Manhunter, he and John are grappling with similar questions about lineage. and against heritage and nature to raise. How did the exploration of these themes evolve during the development of the series? M.Most of these are unpacked during the truck ride together.

King: Basic idea [was] He said John was one of those kids who was told, “This is what you’re going to be when you grow up.” Like a Tiger Woods or Michael Jackson lookalike kid. We started talking about what it was like – to be a genius, to be forced to be [something]. The idea that you were sort of programmed by your parents. And then we were talking about Manhunters. The problem with the Manhunters is that they are programmed to do one thing and they cannot go against their programming. [to eradicate mankind]. That’s why they had to be deleted eventually. Then we started talking about the parallelism of programming and overcoming programming, and this parallelism of what makes you human and what doesn’t came first. These were emerging ideas and we took them to our wonderful writers room and [Breannah Gibson]justin [Britt-Gibson] andVanessa [Baden Kelly] they added their own personal experiences to it and made it a much richer and more personal story.

Mundy: John still doesn’t know if he’s about to die in this car. Noah is trying to learn about himself and figure out whether he wants to kill John or die himself. The key was to hold that tension and then move that conversation forward throughout the episodes. There is anger about what happened to Zoe. After understanding this a little better, he says, “these are different paths my life could take.” And then John can really bring a piece of himself. We talked constantly about how John was raised, the programming of the Manhunters, what “programming” was, and what “upbringing” was. Then there is a confession that turns out to be a lie, but there is also a request to be killed. There were three different parts to this conversation, and we wanted them all to be meaningful and personal.

In the final scenes of the episode, John and Kerry chat about what parents want to do for their children.

(John Johnson/HBO Max)

Much of both Hal and John’s intergenerational trauma is tied to their fathers. But you also see in Noah and John how much of a role their mother played in shaping them. How did this direction arise?

Mundy: When we found out Noah was a Manhunter, we felt like that was too cheap and easy to be the answer. [to the mystery of Hal’s death]. But it felt like the key to the answer to the question, and we were talking a lot about parenting and what you do for your child and what that means. What protects people and what doesn’t? It became clear very early on that in the end the answer would be Kerry. It fit the story Bernadette was experiencing. And [John’s] Our conversation with Kerry explains much of this.

Lindelof: I think this all came from Vanessa Baden Kelly. We wrote the pilot episode where John’s father throws the apple over his head, and when Vanessa arrives a short time later, she’s like, “Where’s my mom?” he asked. It’s one of those moments where you realize that, especially because we’re three guys, but also in the canon of these superheroes, he’s always a father. So the idea was to have Bernadette be the mastermind of John’s upbringing, to provide a simultaneous balm for her husband’s shame at missing out on this opportunity.

I think Kerry is an equally tough mother. She obviously loves Hal. But when you watch it a second time after watching the finale, you realize there’s a sense of guilt there, too, for what he did to her on behalf of her son.

John begins to re-evaluate what Bernadette did as something done for him, rather than for him; This was a selfless act in many ways. He does this knowing that his child will hate him, but that he will be the Green Lantern of Earth, an aspirational quality for generations to come.