Lanterns, as we’ve gathered from its marketing ahead of its series premiere, is as much about Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) struggling to accept that it’s time for him to step aside and let the younger, more ambitious, less jaded John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) take over as Earth’s Green Lantern as it is about the small-town mystery Hal and John are trying to solve in Nebraska. And it turns out that the fear of irrelevancy John sparks in Hal isn’t entirely unfounded: according to showrunner Chris Mundy, Lanterns is just the beginning for John.

Speaking to the New York Times, Mundy said, “Weâre trying to really put John Stewart on his feet inside our own show, but then, once heâs on his feet, he can walk around in the rest of the DC-verse.” Seems like Hal won’t be much of a consideration moving forward, huh?

It’s not a huge surprise, given that, as we said above, the show is literally about John taking over for Hal, but the framing of Lanterns as essentially being a foundational text for John is interesting. Mundy clarified that he and co-creators Damon Lindelof and Tom King “had no directives” about connecting the show to the larger DC Universe, but it certainly seems like they were still thinking about if and how that could work. And Mundy called out John as potentially being able to appear in other DC properties, while omitting any statements about Hal.

What that means for Hal, and what will happen to him on the show, remains to be seen. The first episode of Lanterns airs on Sunday, August 16, on HBO.

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