Men's Lifestyle September 28, 2026 0 Comments

Is Lanterns Secretly Setting the Stage for a Zombie Army Takeover?

Ever found yourself diving into a show thinking you’re signing up for a straight-up Green Lantern saga, only to find it cartwheeling into a full-on cosmic mystery tour? That’s exactly what Lanterns is serving up—and let me tell you, it’s a wild ride that’s got me questioning everything I thought I knew about this glowing universe. Picture this: John Stewart and a holographic Hal Jordan dig up more than just old graves—they unearth family demons, alien wormholes, and lurking villains who might just rewrite the whole Lantern playbook. And speaking of surprises, when a simple paper bag turns into a portal to a wasteland full of bones and secrets, you start wondering—how many colors of rage and resurrection can one show handle before it spectacularly bursts open? If you thought Lanterns was just about heroic green rings, buckle up—there’s a whole spectrum waiting, including shady Red Lanterns and eerie Black Lanterns, creeping in just when you least expect it. Can this show juggle all these wild threads without losing its shine? Guess we’re about to find out. LEARN MORE

4 min read

The show is titled Lanterns, but that doesn’t mean it’s only about Green Lanterns. In the penultimate episode of Lanterns season 1, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Hal’s ring projection of his old self (Kyle Chandler) venture to a barren alien planet where the bones of its people lie in the dirt. The planet was the home of Antaan, played by Paul Ben-Victor, who had shared with Stewart memories of his people’s massacre at the hands of the Manhunters.

While Antaan’s death in episode 5 initially killed off most fan theories that he was Atrocitus, a supervillain who leads the rage-filled Red Lantern Corps, this field trip is slowly resurrecting that idea—and possibly teasing even more of the wider Lantern spectrum. Namely? The Black Lanterns.

Spoilers for Lanterns Episode 7, “The Jordan Boys Legacy,” ahead.

With the mysterious storage box still sealed unless Hal Jordan can authorize it, John digs up Hal’s grave for his ring. Luckily, there’s still a small bit of power left (though the episode really stretches out its meager five percent charge), which is enough to conjure Hal’s old construct. After an emotional, if strange, hello to the good sheriff, the two open Hal’s box to find… two bags.

One of them is a military backpack containing a poncho, some camping supplies, and a loaded gun. The other is a brown paper bag with a literal out-of-this-world artifact: a gooey, shapeshifting wormhole to an alien planet. (Classic Hal. He would keep something like that in a random-ass shopping bag.)

The wormhole brings the men to an alien wasteland where an upside-down city hovers in the sky, and bones lie buried in the ground. John remembers he saw the destruction of this very planet, courtesy of Antaan. The planet is still full of the Manhunters’ poisoned air, which gets John to briefly see his father and even his younger self, who taunt him over his hidden fears.

The episode ends when the two men enter an abandoned tower, where they run into an old face: Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen). How Sinestro escaped that space prison, or where they are and what the building originally housed, is all still unknown. Which is where our guessing can begin.

When Antaan exploded in episode 5, all speculation that he was Atrocitus/Red Lantern went up in smoke. Or so we thought. Now that John and Hal have set foot on Antaan’s unidentified planet (well, so to speak, in the case of the “Halogram”), I’m convinced even more now that they are on Ryut, the home planet of Atrocitus and the place of origin for the Black Lanterns. (The Red Lanterns are located on Ysmault. Same sector, different planet. I know. Welcome to comics, friends.)

Until I am told otherwise, I am sure that Antaan was Ryutian, and that Antaan could still resurrect into a Red Lantern. Hell, he could still be Atrocitus, a name he could adopt when/if he returns. After all, Antaan was driven wholly by revenge, a hateful emotion that is the Red Lanterns’ whole deal.

Furthermore, while I know illusions and hallucinations are not really a Black Lantern thing, I couldn’t help but smell a whiff of them when Hal and John were on the river. No, John’s father isn’t dead—though I have a hunch that his mother tried calling him to tell him some news, only for John to leave her on voicemail—but the whole scene evoked the River Styx. I wouldn’t be surprised if John’s father has actually died back on Earth and he doesn’t know it yet, and he now hallucinates seeing him on a planet of the dead. Adding to this bleak atmosphere is Hal’s projection revealing that his own father killed himself, which marks a dramatic change from established comics canon in which Hal saw his father die in a plane crash.

Look, I know I could be wrong here—which has been my track record with this show, unfortunately—but I think all theories about Antaan being a Red Lantern are officially back into play. Atrocitus’s origin story in the comics lines up one-to-one with Antaan and his people’s extinction from Manhunters. The fact that the planet is now a giant graveyard reinforces that they’re on Ryut, and we’re much closer to seeing not just the Red Lanterns but the Black Lanterns too.

I don’t know how a show like Lanterns can introduce more spectrum colors without exploding into a different show entirely. And with only one episode to go this season, there are bigger mysteries to solve, like who actually killed Hal Jordan. I admit I’m a little worried Lanterns is going full speed in a direction that I don’t think it has earned yet. (Can’t we get one season of a Green Lantern show with just Sinestro as the villain? Please?) But a show featuring a powerful zombie army that’s primed to kill everyone and everything is surprisingly on-brand for HBO.