HBO's Lanterns has reworked the origin story of Green Lantern John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), shifting his backstory in a way that deepens the show's themes rather than simply modernising the DC Comics character for the screen. Episode three, titled "OutKast", explores how John came to serve as Hal Jordan's (Kyle Chandler) backup and what wielding a power ring means to him, building on a cliffhanger in which the disgraced former Lantern Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) warns Hal that John poses a greater threat than the shapeshifting Manhunters he came seeking information about.

In the comics, created by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams in 1972, John is recruited as an adult after fellow Lantern Guy Gardner is injured, and Adams designed him as an unmasked symbol of Black Power who confronts racism head-on. The HBO series instead begins John's story at birth: his father failed the same "are you afraid?" test that gave Hal his ring, and a guilt-ridden Guardian (Laura Linney) later tells John's mother, Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones), that raising her son to be fearless could make him Hal's eventual successor. Writer Vanessa Baden Kelly frames the episode around an ambitious Black family pushing their son towards heroism within a system stacked against him, with co-creators Tom King and Damon Lindelof citing Adams's activism and other mythic superhero stories as inspiration for the change.