In the DC Universe, it's not uncommon for multiple characters to have held a superhero's mantle. Whether it's Barry Allen and Wally West's respective stints as The Flash or the many humans who have served the Green Lantern Corps, fans have plenty of options to pick favourites from.
In the case of Green Lantern, John Stewart is frequently ranked above Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner (especially for viewers of Justice League Unlimited). Now, though, DC Studios' Lanterns looks set to make a big change to John's past.
In the comics, he serves in the U.S. Marine Corps before returning home to become an architect. Years later, John discovered that the Guardians of the Universe had been watching him since he was a child, believing he'd one day become an invaluable member of the Green Lantern Corps.
After stepping in to fight a Manhunter, the veteran was finally given a Green Lantern ring and became a superhero. While the DCU isn't veering too wildly from that, a clip from Sunday's third episode confirms that the Guardians told John's parents that John had been chosen to become Sector 2814's next Green Lantern as a baby.
That's why his parents have brought him up in such a strange way—shooting an apple off the top of his head to prove he has no fear in the premiere, for example—and, in the DCU, makes John something of a "chosen one."
This raises some big questions, including why John was being trained specifically to wield Hal's ring, only for Guy to receive a ring before he did. Hal training him now makes more sense, and while there is a connection to the source material (the Guardians keeping an eye on John since his childhood), the fact that he was chosen as a baby to become Green Lantern goes against a lot of what we know about how the rings work.
It also turns Hal into something of a "filler" while the Guardians were waiting for John to grow up and become the Green Lantern they wanted.
Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
Alongside Kyle Chander and Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Nicole Ari Parker, Jason Ritter, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones round out the cast.
The first two episodes of Lanterns are now streaming on HBO Max.