Lanterns brought its first season to a close last Sunday, delivering some major developments for John Stewart while leaving plenty of unanswered questions about where the HBO series could go next. With the DCU's future still taking shape, the finale has also planted some intriguing seeds for both a potential Season 2 and the wider franchise.
The series has split opinions, particularly in its handling of Hal Jordan and his apparent lack of a future beyond this eight-episode season. However, there are hints that we haven't seen the last of the veteran Green Lantern.
From Hal shocking death and Sinestro's mysterious plans to the emergence of a new Green Lantern and a potentially huge threat hiding in plain sight, there's a lot to unpack. Here are five ways the Lanterns finale could be setting the stage for what's next...
5. Hal Jordan's Resurrection
Despite Sinestro's bold claim that he can bring Hal Jordan back from the dead, there's nothing concrete in the finale to suggest the hero will be brought back in any form.
The Halogram is seemingly deleted from the ring when John Stewart says his new oath, and we know the real deal was shot in the head and killed in cold blood by his girlfriend, Sheriff Kerry, after he offered to take her and her son, the Manhunter Noah, to safety. With that in mind, a potential Season 2 return seems doubtful.
However, the backlash from fans to Hal's murder has been more vocal than James Gunn and company could have imagined. While Lanterns tried its hardest to tear him down to build John Stewart up, this attempted character assassination has failed. So, how better to win fans back than by simply undoing Hal's premature demise? At the very least, Sinestro's comments have left the door ajar...
4. Parallax
Lanterns doesn't do a particularly good job of explaining, well, anything. We know that Zoe unleashed some kind of fear-based weapon on the planet she ravaged, and that it's been left infected and uninhabitable. However, the lantern that Noah forced Sinestro to use is imbued with that fear, and is now being used to power John's ring.
While we wouldn't expect a series as grounded as Lanterns to suddenly throw a glowing yellow space monster into the mix (an admittedly simplistic description of the embodiment of fear), there are ways to adapt Parallax that could be really quite fascinating.
Whether it's Sinestro realising he can weaponise the ravaged planet or John slowly being infected as Hal was in the comics, the potential is there to make great use of this concept. If Hal somehow returns as the villainous Parallax, wearing the rings of the slain Green Lantern Corps members he killed between seasons on Oa, then we'd have no complaints, provided redemption eventually follows.
3. The Sinestro Corps
It's impossible to imagine Lanterns ever pitting John Stewart against Sinestro and his "Sinestro Corps." For starters, the series has an aversion to aliens that look like anything other than regular humans, but that doesn't mean the villain can't return with a much bigger role in Season 2.
We still don't know why he killed that Guardian of the Universe, and seeing as he has the skill to create a new lantern, it stands to reason that he can make another (as well as a ring to go with it). Seeing as John left him chained up to die, it makes perfect sense for Sinestro to arrive on Earth, wielding yellow energy, eager for revenge.
Sinestro didn't get much screen time in Lanterns, and he never really felt like Hal's greatest enemy or even a villain capable of being a big bad. That can change with the right story, though it's obviously hard not to be concerned that the DCU's Sinestro might wield the power of racism instead of fear, based on how Season 1 went.
2. Noah As The DCU's Big Bad
I mean, this has to be where the DCU is going, right? Nearly three years in, this franchise has no obvious big bad or endgame, and Gunn has said that Lanterns ties into the wider story being told, so it has to be the Manhunter child of the woman who killed Hal Jordan and got away with it.
Noah told John that there's part of him that intends to find fame and fortune before eventually becoming a politician and making his way into the Pentagon. From there, he can take over the planet or start World War III, and he even forces Sinestro to make him a lantern so that he can use the power of a Green Lantern to deal with those who oppose him.
John's response? To let him go and play football. That decision is bound to come back and haunt him, and it seems entirely possible that he'll be a major threat in Lanterns Season 2 or perhaps even a Justice League movie. Darkseid, who?
1. Earth's New Green Lantern
Wearing the ring of the dead man whose killer he let go free, John emasculates Guy Gardner, demands he leave Earth, and then creates a new oath before flying off as the planet's new (unofficial) Green Lantern. The journey is strange, but 10 years after he first started training, John has finally become Green Lantern.
We know that John will return in Man of Tomorrow, likely suited up and doing his thing as Earth's new protector. Hopefully, Gunn will show what the former Marine is capable of, as the extent of his imagination in Lanterns was using the ring as a lighter and creating a bird construct.
This character has endless potential, something fans of Justice League International will be quick to tell you. With any luck, John will get to fulfil his potential on the big screen moving forward, and not in another primarily Earth-based season of Lanterns. Ultimately, this hinges on what, if anything, Gunn has planned for him.