This week's episode of Lanterns, "OutKast," focused on John Stewart's backstory (more below), but next Sunday, we'll return to the 2016 timeline for the second part of that conversation between Hal Jordan and Sinestro.
Sinestro tells his former trainee what he already knew deep down: Stewart wasn't chosen by the Guardians as a "contingency plan," but as a replacement. The incarcerated villain then goes so far as to advise Jordan to kill his mentee.
We doubt Jordan will actually consider this, but the show does definitely seem to be taking the character down a much darker path than fans expected, so his fear of being replaced may give in to Sinestro's manipulation.
The teaser also shows Hal and John following what appears to be a drill construct forming a tunnel, Stewart being captured by Macon's men, and... a cow walking through a portal?
While speaking to IGN, showrunner Chris Mundy explained the major change to John Stewart's origin.
“We hit on that pretty early. We didn't hit on the entire framework of the storytelling in Episode 3 [right away], but we did on the thing that John's dad could have been Hal, and how many others there were. We would always just refer to it as he was bubbled – that John Sr. was bubbled. And then when the Manhunters came into the story, we talked a lot about how they were these entities that just solved trolley problems all the time, so they were programmed to be a certain way.”
“[The Manhunters] were so good at it that it was too scary to the Guardians,” continued Mundy, “and they were terminated. And then we were like, ‘Well, what's the difference between being programmed and being parented so hard?’ And the conversations just started converging and it felt really natural.”
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.