HBO Max's new series Lanterns has stunned viewers with a first-episode twist that appears to set up Hal Jordan's transformation from hero to villain and back again, mirroring a well-known arc from DC Comics. The pilot largely unfolds in 2016, following Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and his reluctant successor John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as they investigate murders in Rushville, Nebraska, but a closing scene jumps to the present day to reveal Jordan dead and his ring missing, launching the show's central mystery.

The twist echoes Jordan's comic-book history, in which grief over the destruction of Coast City drove him to slaughter the Green Lantern Corps as the villain Parallax, before he was eventually redeemed as the Spectre, the "Wrath of God". Co-creator Damon Lindelof has suggested Jordan's fate was shaped by DC Studios' decision to make Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) Earth's Green Lantern in Superman, prompting writers to explore where Hal might be instead, potentially marking DC Studios' first major step into supernatural storytelling under its "Gods and Monsters" banner.