Lanterns came to an end last night with an introspective season finale that, while light on spectacle, did deliver answers to the show's central mysteries. Most specifically, who killed Hal Jordan, and is the veteran ring-slinging hero really dead?
After an initial misdirect that Manhunter/human hybrid Noah Macon pulled the trigger, we later learn that his mother, Sheriff Kerry Kane, actually killed the man she loved (or at least, cared deeply about) when he told her that he knew what Noah really was.
There was a lot of speculation that "dead Hal" was either a corpse of one of the shape-shifting aliens or a clone, but no, the Hal Jordan is officially deceased in the DCU.
There are some hints that the character could somehow return (Sinestro mentions a possible resurrection) down the line, but it doesn't sound like anything has been mapped out... yet.
"I definitely don't want to speculate about the answer to that question," co-creator Damon Lindelof tells Collider when asked whether we might see Jordan again. "I can only tell you that everybody in the Season 1 room, inclusive of the writers who are working on Season 2, felt like, even though we knew that it was going to be emotionally devastating and/or disappointing and maybe even frustrating, that the worst possible schmuck-baity thing that we could do is show you a pilot where Hal Jordan was definitively dead, and then try to walk it back and say, 'Oh, he was a clone,' or 'He's only mostly dead' in the Princess Bride vernacular. In terms of moving forward into subsequent seasons of the show, I swear to you, as I look at you in the eye on Wednesday this 30th of September, I do not know anything about the creative, and I wouldn't want to hamstring those writers in any way for what future storytelling mechanisms they could indulge in.
Knowing what the comics have done with Parallax and Hal, I think, has died at least 3 or 4 times over the course of the canon, and celebrating everything that Kyle did in his performance to get the audience to fall in love with Hal. So I think that honoring the emotional impact and making Season 1 feel felt. The question that you're asking would be the equivalent of, 'Would I want to see a movie called Ghost 2 where Patrick Swayze was alive again?' And the answer is, I would not, because it would degrade the emotional impact of Ghost. But where there's a will, there's a way. Where there's will, there's a way."
Some fans were initially resistant to Kyle Chandler's casting, but most would agree that the Friday Night Lights alum knocked it out of the park as an older, jaded Jordan - so much so that there was uproar when the character was killed off at the end of the premiere.
Unfortunately, showrunner Chris Mundy gave a less optimistic response to the possibility of Hal's return while speaking to Brandon Davis.
“It’s absolutely the end of the season and the end of [John and Hal’s] relationship. I think our intent was always just that, to close that off emotionally. That’s the best way to say it. I know there are people that love the idea of Hal going forward but… I would never say never to anything, but it’s also like that closed the book on our story for this season.”
What did you make of "Dirt and Stars"? Do you think we'll see Hal Jordan again in some capacity? Drop us a comment down below, and check out some new stills from the finale.
HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios. The pilot episode is co-written by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, who are co-creators for the series. Mundy serves as showrunner. The first two episodes are directed by James Hawes, with Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov also tapped to direct. The series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, James Gunn, Peter Safran, King, Ron Schmidt, and Hawes. Based on the DC comic characters from Green Lantern.
The series stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
The series follows new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.