First five minutes of Lanterns unveils Hal Jordan and John Stewart's past

HBO is hyping up Lanterns, which is releasing this Sunday. The second chapter of the DCU has had nothing but positive word-of-mouth behind it long before any trailer was even made available to the public. Now, the network has released the opening five minutes of the first episode online to excite the fans.

It also gives proper context to the main characters of the DCU HBO series: Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and his replacement, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). The Lanterns clip also reveals Hal Jordan's past as a veteran in the US Air Force and his traumatic past of losing a loved one. Right after that, we also learn how John's father, John Stewart Sr., trained him to be fearless.

What happens in the first five minutes of Lanterns?

We are given the year right in the opening frame of the Lanterns clip: 1996. A young John Stewart is watching TV while another kid named Marcus tries to warn the young boy that his father is here. But John ignores Marcus's warning and continues to watch TV, a 60 Minutes interview with Hal Jordan, who has been a Green Lantern for a decade.

The 1996 Hal Jordan we see on the TV might be in his 30s, meaning he joined the Green Lantern Corps in the 1980s. We are told that his test involved only one question: Hal was asked, "Are you afraid?" It seems Jordan answered the Guardians in the negative, as he lost his father at a young age.

Right after this, we hear Armyman John Stewart Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson) driving nearby, and soon the young boy switches off the TV. But Stewart Sr. knows that his son was watching TV and asks him who he was watching. To this, the young John answers that he was watching Hal but doesn't recall his surname. This establishes that John Stewart probably idolized superheroes.

John Stewart Sr. takes his son outside, gives the young boy an apple, and asks him to stand at a distance, and places it on his head. Then, Stewart Sr. takes out his gun, asks the young boy if he is afraid, and shoots the apple when the latters says no. However, the young boy is unfazed by this experience, and John Stewart Sr. hugs his son.

This scene transitions to 2016, as an adult John Stewart is boxing in a gym. As he walks out, a car drives in front of him, with an older Hal inside. As John boards it, Hal plainly tells his replacement that he is late, and the clip ends there.

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It seems that Hal and John might drive to Rushville, the town in which Lanterns is set. Are you excited for the DCU HBO series?

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