This week's fifth episode of Lanterns finally explained why Guy Gardner, not John Stewart or Hal Jordan, has had possession of the Green Lantern ring in the DCU for the past decade.
Spoilers follow.
In "Lights Out," Stewart lays a beatdown on Jordan and takes the ring from his "mentor," but decides against claiming the ring for himself by saying the Green Lantern oath. John brings the ring back to Guardian Lianna and tells her that he no longer has any interest in becoming a GL after everything he's witnessed.
So, Gardner wasn't the Guardians' second or even third choice for Earth's Green Lantern, which may explain why the guy is such an unrelenting asshat.
Gardner is set to make his debut during next week's episode, as we saw him visit an incarcerated Stewart in a recent clip.
During a recent interview with EW, Fillion was asked about Gardner making more DCU appearances than any other character, and whether he views Guy as this universe's version of an "anchor being."
“I don’t know if I’m an anchor being. I do think I am a thread being. The quilt of the DC universe is being assembled before us. We’re witnessing the pieces coming forth, and now we’re starting to see threads between those pieces tying them together. Guy Gardner is enjoying being one of those characters that is the backdrop to this universe. It affords some consistency.”
“Anytime you get to spend time with a character, it fills out their history a little bit," the Firefly alum added. "I feel very fortunate. I don’t wanna say I feel a sense of ownership because I did not invent the character, I did not write the character, I didn’t design the costume. The hairpiece is fantastic. So many other people are responsible for this character. I feel like I’m leasing the character.”
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.