Lanterns may have cemented its place as the watercooler TV series of the end of summer with each new episode, as the mystery of the Manhunter and the show’s larger place in the DCEU continues to keep fans hooked. That said, the first episode started things off on shaky ground, sending longtime Green Lantern fans into something of a spiral when it wrapped up with the revelation that Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan dies in 2026. After waiting years for another take on the character following the Ryan Reynolds feature film, they were met with the rug pull that the new Hal was actually dead and appeared to have no future in the DCU after Season 1 of the series.
That controversy has taken something of a backseat to the larger plot of Lanterns, though this week’s episode saw a major chunk of that come to an end (spoilers for Lanterns Episode 5 will follow), meaning that the fervor over Jordan’s death may well rear its ugly head again. To that end, though, the new episode has delivered a surprise that might have quietly confirmed to fans how Kyle Chandler’s version of the DC hero might actually be able to stick around in the franchise for the foreseeable future.
In the first episode of Lanterns, when Hal Jordan throws an extreme curveball at John Stewart as a test, he leaps from a moving car and forces his protege to figure it out with the help of the ring. After covering himself with a bubble-wrap construct and walking away, Stewart gets a surprise from the Power Ring when a copy of Hal Jordan pops out of the ring, revealing itself to be a backup of Jordan’s consciousness that’s “combined with the sentience of the ring.” Though they’re supposed to be updated weekly, this Hal hasn’t been updated in a decade.
Flash forward to this week’s episode of Lanterns, where Hal brings out the copy of himself, where he activates “sentry protocol,” and forces the copy to do some of the legwork in his effort to locate Zoe in Rushville. As we see in the episode, even though the copy of Hal from the ring isn’t actively walking around or visible at all times, it’s still very helpful for Hal himself as he seeks to find and eliminate the Manhunter.
Between the scene this week with the Hal copy and the one from the pilot episode, the DCU has confirmed a way that Kyle Chandler’s version of the beloved character could feasibly return in any number of ways down the line. When Jordan’s death was revealed in the first episode, fans assumed it meant his ending had arrived before he really started. James Gunn confirmed very early on in his time at DC Studios that “In the DCU if you die, you’re dead.”
The filmmaker has noted that exceptions could be made, of course, if some kind of resurrection was central to the story being told, but it’s a definitive rule that not every movie franchise can stick to. To that end, the DCU might already have its first case of making the rule work happening right in front of us. Hal Jordan’s death may very well stick, but Chandler can still pop up as the construct from the ring.
That said, the final scene of this week’s Lanterns does throw a wrinkle into that. After taking out the Manhunter and securing the ring and the lantern, John Stewart makes a shocking decision, leaving behind his life as a Green Lantern and stepping away.
Will Kyle Chandler make more appearances down the line or will the DCU cement its Green Lanterns in a way by the end of the show that means he’s over and out after one season? Time will tell, but the loophole has been found.
