That Wild Lanterns Finale Twist Upends the DCU’s Future

5 min readThroughout John Stewart’s life, his parents raised him to have no fear. But in the finale of Lanterns, Stewart (Aaron Pierre) concludes that they were operating out of their own fears all along. You can say, then, that fear is essential to John’s being. He isn’t a man without fear; he’s a man shaped by it.At the end of Lanterns episode 8, “Dirt and Stars,” John Stewart finally becomes the Lantern he’s meant to be. But I don’t think he’s becoming a Green Lantern. Stewart may have just become something else entirely—and who else but James Gunn might have spoiled this whole outcome two years ago?One of the shows of the summer, Lanterns is now over after eight legitimately great episodes. But the final moments of its first season suggest that Lanterns, like John himself, is morphing into a new entity. We might see this new show in season 2, if it’s slated at all. (It’s currently up in the air right now.) Let’s break it down.Spoilers for Lanterns episode 8, “Dirt and Stars”—the season finale—are below.First, here’s what we still don’t know about Lanterns even when the credits roll. We still don’t know if Antaan was Atrocitus, still a popular fan theory, or if his now-desolate home planet is Ryut, the (future?) home of the zombie Black Lantern Corps. An ominous line by Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), in which he claims he can resurrect Hal, is loaded with blinding neon signs that the Black Lanterns aren’t so far off.Now, here’s what we actually learn: It turns out Zoe wasn’t the only Manhunter in Rushville. Apparently, Zoe’s big plan for Kane (Kelly Macdonald) was to make her—and pardon my phrasing here—a vessel to give birth to and raise another Manhunter. That second Manhunter is Noah, who at some point figured out his alien nature and has been working in secret with Zoe to pull the strings.Which brings us back to the dead planet, which now has an unmistakable yellow tint to communicate the planet’s abundance of residual fear. Why was Zoe so keen to build a wormhole here? It could be that she likes to languish in her guilt over annihilating its people... or, more realistically, it’s that it houses a Lantern Forge. While the air and water are poisoned with fear, Sinestro uses the forge to build a new Lantern battery. Yellow “fear” energy keeps the Lantern glued together—in a way that evokes the Japanese art kintsugi—which means that if John charges his Lantern ring using that battery, it might infect him with fear.If you didn’t know already, the color yellow and the emotion of fear are strongly associated in the comics. Sinestro leads the Sinestro Corps, a rival faction to the Green Lantern Corps empowered by fear. They are effectively Yellow Lanterns, and this whole scene in Lanterns is seeding for Sinestro’s formation of the Sinestro Corps in the DCU. You can look no further than his villain speech about fear and how it “can be the most powerful force in the universe” if it’s “harnessed correctly.”And now, it’s none other than John who might be its first member.For the rest of the episode, John hesitates—out of fear!—to charge up his depleting Power Ring using Sinestro’s Lantern. The stakes are doubled when John learns that doing so would erase Hal’s stored consciousness, which would basically write Kyle Chandler out of the series. Or at least until the writers decide to pull the Black Lantern trigger and have Hal return as a zombie. (Which, I’m going to level with you: That would be awesome.)Most of the finale grapples with Noah’s secret Manhunter identity, and how the fate of Rushville basically rests on his decision to do—well, anything. Although Noah insists he just wants to live a normal life, and keep on the charade of being a football star in the crosshairs of college scouts, he can’t. Noah himself asks John to kill him, but John hesitates. John thinks there’s another way out of this that doesn’t end with more blood on his ring.Later, John confronts Sheriff Kane (Kelly Macdonald), who confesses to John that she was the one who killed Hal after Hal came to her with knowledge that Noah was a Manhunter. Tragically, the last thing Hal told Kane was “I love you,” which makes Kane’s single act of emotionally charged violence all the heavier.In the end, Noah lives and his mom gets away with literal murder—for now. Alone, John summons Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) to forward a coded message to the Guardians, one that I suspect is meant to bring the Guardians to Earth to hopefully stop Noah without letting John kill him outright.From there, John bravely charges up his Power Ring. This not only turns John into a Lantern, but it also “erases” the Hal-ogram, leaving John completely on his own except for the powers of a Green, possibly Yellow Lantern.Is John Stewart a Yellow Lantern?In theory, yes. John has charged up his ring with a fear-infected Lantern, and he is now embracing his fear instead of ignoring it. His new oath says as much: “In brightest day, in darkest night. I embrace my fear, I’ll do what’s right. I choose this ring, I choose this fight, in service to this lantern’s light.”We don’t see John suit up as a Yellow Lantern, but we can put two and two together and assume that John is a Lantern—whether he’s Green or Yellow is why we’ll have to hope a second season is in the cards.What’s funny is that James Gunn himself might have teased this two years ago. Back in 2024, when James Gunn first talked about the creative team behind Lanterns, he shared art from Green Lantern: Earth One, a standalone 2018 series written by Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko and illustrated by Hardman. That story happened to feature John as—drumroll, please—a Yellow Lantern. And it was Hardman’s art Gunn shared on Instagram.Maybe James Gunn just wanted cool art of Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Maybe. But Gunn has been coy with what comic art he shares on social media, as he’s often picked specific pieces of art that reflect his vision for DC. For example, when he first joined DC Studios, he shared art from Kingdom Come, an acclaimed DC graphic novel from 1996. Later, when he revealed the costume for David Corenswet’s Man of Steel for his 2025 film, the “S” insignia bore an almost exact resemblance to Superman’s “S” from Kingdom Come, minus a change in color scheme.James Gunn isn’t careless about what he posts, is what I’m saying. And although Lanterns ends on a semi-ambiguous note, it seems Gunn has already told us where to look.As for Lanterns, the show has coasted on its “grounded” (using that word liberally here) take on the typically sci-fi-heavy Green Lantern mythos. But with the Guardians on the way and John now a Lantern, and other Lanterns from the emotional spectrum expected to appear any minute, Lanterns season 2 might be a very different show entirely. It’s impossible to imagine the show retaining its dark murder mystery atmosphere and gothic Americana vibes when there are Yellow Lanterns and Red Lanterns and Black Lanterns everywhere. But until we see anything from season 2, we still have a pretty damn perfect first season. I feel a rewatch coming on.