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[Editor’s Note: The following interview contains spoilers for “Lanterns” Episode 8, the finale, including the ending.]
The first season of “Lanterns” did not end like many superhero series. There is no lighthearted, CGI-heavy showdown between men in tights. The finale doesn’t even make much use of the magic ring. Instead, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) solves the murder of his mentor, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), says goodbye to his Hal-o-gram, and claims the place he was born (or raised) to inherit: Earth’s new Green Lantern.
In a panel discussion with Chandler, Pierre, and co-creators Damon Lindelof and Tom King, co-creator and showrunner Chris Mundy explained the series’ alternative approach to the Green Lantern heroes.
“This story was about these two guys. We knew if we landed with them emotionally, we would have done our job,” said Mundy. “We barely talked about it because we all knew this was what we were going for – that [a more action-oriented ending] it would have been distracting, that it would be just an event instead of an emotion. “
Mundy pointed to action scenes in previous episodes providing plenty of pyrotechnics, including the climactic fight between Hal and John in Episode 5.
“What I love about the big fight these guys have is that it’s a big fight, but it’s literal. [just] these two guys and it’s an emotional scene even though they’re beating the hell out of each other. The ending had to be an even quieter connection of these two.”
“Lanterns” faced some backlash from comic book fans and critics for the limited use of the ring, which could reveal whatever the wearer is thinking. (The previous on-screen adaptation of Green Lantern, the 2011 film starring Ryan Reynolds, suffered far worse reactions despite the ring’s near-constant use to create everything from swords and spaceships to Hal’s CGI mask.)
“One of the reasons I like to tell long stories and television versus film is because I feel like we should make a two-hour ‘Lanterns’ movie about this kind of meeting. [between] John and Hal, you had to have a third act [be a] bombastic, amazing action set piece, and then you get like two or three minutes of coda after that [deliver an emotional payoff,]” said Lindelof. “We arrived [do] that’s almost over three episodes […] You can only do that on TV. So if you don’t have to do the big bombshell action piece, you have to ask yourself, ‘What’s the service for a show that’s always been about these two guys?’ It was just liberating to know that we could do something like this instead. “
Perhaps the most interesting moment of the finale is the final encounter between John and Hal (or, more accurately, the Hal-o-gram). In what begins as a joke with Hal, the two men tell each other, “I love you,” ending a relationship that began with a lot of trust and animosity before growing into a meaningful, powerful connection.
“The characters, they fell in love through this action and this friendship,” Chandler said. “Although it was pretty rocky, I have to say. But for that moment to happen at the end, it was just a human factor. Maybe in a movie from the ’50s or ’60s, you have Duke standing there, and he’s not just going to say, ‘Well, I love you, baby’ – it just didn’t happen like that back then. It’s painfully open.”
“It was a happy thing to be able to do it on screen,” Chandler said, joking, “And it was easy to do it with Aaron because, even though I don’t really like it, I knew I was getting paid. So, you know, the checks went through.”
“They paid me what I got for the whole season just to be here with you, Kyle,” Pierre said in response. “It’s funny because me and Kyle, so much of our energy is in the fierce streak and it’s volatile. […] But when there were moments in the script that made us stop that and go into the emotional beat, that was very moving for us, I think, as the characters but also as the people who were playing the characters.”
“Kyle thinks he made me cry that day,” Pierre said. “I think I made him cry, but we have to let the program continue and see what the outcome is, you know?”
Another bold choice appears when John creates his own vow. Usually, all Green Lanterns swear the same oath – a staple of the comics – but John is forging his own path, and the creators decided he should use his own words to get there.
“Obviously, we were crazy lazy,” Mundy said of writing a new vow. “I know Justin [Britt-Gibson]one of the writers said, ‘Well, we don’t rewrite [the oath]we are reassessing it.”
Mundy and Lindelof also explained why the old oaths would not make sense to John, in particular.
“John’s path was not the normal path,” Munday said. “We wanted it to be true to the original and respectful of the original – and his version is rooted, obviously, in the OG version – but we also wanted to use it to talk about [season’s] subjects, and to do as it was selection this thing and not, ‘Oh, I’m doing it because my parents want me to do it,’” said Mundy.
“When you look at John Stewart’s story as a whole, it’s really hard to get to the end and say he’s in line with the Green Lantern group and Lianna. [the Guardian played by Laura Linney]and all that [they] stand up for him,” said Lindelof. “For a man who pledged his loyalty to the army, to his parents, that’s like this idea of saying, ‘I’m a bit past doing that to other groups, and in order for me to take an oath, it has to be on my own words and in my own way.’
“Circling back to how the show deals with fear, we started saying, ‘If we’re not afraid to make an opinion, maybe we shouldn’t make it,'” Lindelof said. “We have the baton, we have the ring for this time, we get to do a season of this show – who knows what will happen next. You can’t take a risk for the sake of risk, it has to be earned, and as it’s earned the character starts to tell you what they will and won’t do. So, it just felt right, and we realized that it’s the thing again, maybe the it’s an honor. the characters at the end of the day, and it felt like it was a good thing.
“Lanterns” is available on HBO and HBO Max. The series has not been renewed for a season 2 since its release.
