Lanterns Episode 8 preview teases why John Stewart might not take up the Green Lantern mantle

As the Lanterns finale is just days away from its release date, fans continue to come up with more and more wild theories about who killed Hal Jordan and how it would end. While fans continue to focus on who killed Hal Jordan, that is not the only mystery that needs to be solved in the HBO series. We also need to figure out what role John Stewart will play in the overall DCU going forward.

We know John is appearing in next year’s Man of Tomorrow, and therefore, this week’s finale of the HBO series is expected to set that up. We at Soap Central have a wild theory about John’s role going forward based on the Lanterns episode 8 preview. We think that John Stewart’s DCU arc in the HBO series sets him up to be a part of a classic Green Lantern villain team, but he will not be one.

We believe that Lanterns could end with John wearing a Yellow Lantern ring

At the 25-second mark of the preview above, we see a ring on John Stewart's finger. However, the ring Stewart is wearing doesn’t look like the ring that Hal Jordan wore. The ring on John Stewart’s finger looks like this:

This cropped image gives the best look at the ring on John's finger in the episode 8 preview. We can clearly see that this ring looks darker than Hal Jordan’s ring, which looks like this:

It is clear from the comparison that the ring on John's finger doesn’t have the circles in the center. Moreover, John’s ring doesn’t have the bright golden bands that are clearly visible on Hal’s ring. While it is possible that the scene in which John looks at the ring on his finger in the episode 8 preview is lit poorly, there is another reason why we think that the ring on John’s finger might be a Yellow Lantern ring.

The official promo art features John surrounded by the color yellow

As Lanterns is heading towards the finale, many fans are looking back at the January 2023 announcement video. In that video, we see the official artwork that James Gunn and Peter Safran used while announcing the HBO series. We can see that Hal Jordan on the right side is surrounded by green, and John, on the left side, is surrounded by yellow. This artwork is taken right out of the Green Lantern: Earth One comics.

In the Earth One continuity, John Stewart becomes a Yellow Lantern instead of a Green Lantern, as he is in the mainline DC continuity. Here’s the thing, though: even if John is a part of the Yellow Lantern Corps, he is still a hero who teams up with Hal Jordan.

Thus, DC Studios' use of the Green Lantern: Earth One artwork for the Lanterns announcement might hint at the way the HBO series might end this week. John taking the Yellow Lantern ring would also make sense given his childhood training. The series fleshed out John Stewart’s backstory as someone who has been trained to be fearless.

The DCU might be giving us a heroic Yellow Lantern

The Yellow Lantern Corps is generally regarded as the opposite of the Green Lanterns, because the former are powered by fear. By contrast, the Green Lantern rings are powered by will, which is the opposite of fear. Therefore, for a long time, the Yellow Lantern Corps has generally been considered to be villainous.

The fact that the founder of the Yellow Lanterns is Sinestro didn't help the villainous reputation either. But the DCU might challenge fans by making John a Yellow Lantern Corps member, but he uses it to do good. Stewart did the same in the Earth One continuity, and this is something DC Studios could adapt for the character. This could also solve another mystery.

If you remember, Lanterns was marketed with this ominous tagline, “Only one can wear the ring”. Making John a Yellow Lantern could give the DCU two Lantern heroes, with one Green (Guy Gardner) and the other Yellow (John Stewart). Now, there is only one problem that the HBO series needs to resolve.

HBO series has not set up the Yellow Lantern Corps in any way:

Sinestro was introduced back in the second episode of the HBO series, and he briefly returned at the start of the fourth episode. Since then, Hal’s former mentor and arch-nemesis has not appeared until the closing minutes of the seventh episode, as he bumped into John Stewart on Antaan’s destroyed planet in 2026.

We know that the finale will open with John interrogating Sinestro, and the former marine will be forced to conclude that Hal wasn’t killed by his former mentor. Before John left this desolate alien planet, Sinestro could forge the Yellow Lantern ring and hand it over to John.

The forging of a Yellow Lantern should not be difficult, given that Sinestro is currently stranded on a planet that was practically destroyed by a fear toxin that continues to be present in the air and rainwater. Thus, we could very well see the creation of the Yellow Lantern Corps in the finale airing this week.

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Seven episodes of the DCU HBO series are currently streaming on HBO Max. Stream them all before the Lanterns finale airs on HBO this Sunday night.

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