This article contains spoilers for “Lanterns” Season 1, Episode 8, “Dirt and Stars.”
David Corenswet’s Superman is set to team up with Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor in “Man of Tomorrow,” but they won’t be the only major DC characters to appear in the “Superman” sequel. The upcoming film is also set to feature Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart, and with “Lanterns” having just wrapped up, we have a much better idea of how he’ll fit into the story.
The “Lanterns” finale revealed who killed Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan before finally allowing Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart to become a Lantern. Previously, “Lanterns” Episode 5 changed John’s backstory by having him turn down the opportunity to wear the Power Ring and become a fully fledged member of the Green Lantern Corps. At the time, it was unclear where the show was going. Would we even see John become a Lantern by the end of the season? Well, the writers saved that for the very end of the finale, wherein John uses a Lantern forged by Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) to take an oath of his own choosing and essentially become a lone wolf Lantern for planet Earth.
Pierre was already confirmed to appear in “Man of Tomorrow” back in March 2026, the news of which broke prior to the August debut of “Lanterns.” But with the HBO series being focused on both John and Hal, it was unclear just how the former was going to figure into the events of the movie, whether Hal would be involved, and at what stage of his Green Lantern career John might be. Now, “Lanterns” has answered all of those questions, setting John up to join Supes and Lex on their intergalactic mission to take down Brainiac (Lars Eidinger) in “Man of Tomorrow.”
John Stewart becomes an independent Lantern at the end of Lanterns
“Lanterns” began by clarifying much about the DC Universe timeline, and ended by clarifying John Stewart’s place on that timeline. The show focuses on two main time periods: 2016 and 2026. The latter is the most important, as we already know that the events of 2025’s “Superman” occurred in the DCU’s version of 2025. So the 2026 scenes in “Lanterns” take place after Gunn’s film, wherein Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner is already established as Earth’s Green Lantern.
In the “Lanterns” finale, however, John puts Guy on notice. After recovering Hal Jordan’s Power Ring in a prior episode, John discovers that Sinestro created his own Lantern while stranded on the home world of Paul Ben Victor’s Antaan. Sinestro’s Lantern was forged from the waters of a planet drenched in fear gas. With this device, then, John is not only able to charge his ring, but embrace his fear in the process, essentially becoming a Lantern powered by his ability to acknowledge and overcome his own fear.
John then summons Guy to Rushville, Nebraska and informs him that he’s going to become Earth’s Lantern while Guy covers the rest of Sector 2814. “Think of me as an independent contractor,” he says. “No Guardians. No Corps. You take the stars, have fun. I’ll take the dirt.” Put simply, then, John Stewart is an independent Lantern powered by an ability to face his own fear, beholden to no one, and operating solely on Earth. That’s interesting because “Man of Tomorrow” is set to feature an alien android in Brainiac and will almost certainly see Superman and Lex Luthor going off-planet. How will John fit into that story? Well, it seems the “Lanterns” writers weren’t too concerned about that.
John Stewart is a Lantern, but we don’t know how he figures into Man of Tomorrow
James Gunn has confirmed “Man of Tomorrow” takes place after “Superman.” The movie hits theaters on July 9, 2027, presumably placing it after the events of the 2026 timeline in “Lanterns.” That means John Stewart will likely be operating as Earth’s Lantern at the time the film takes place. Beyond that, however, the show’s co-creators weren’t too concerned about “Man of Tomorrow.”
As “Lanterns” co-creator Damon Lindelof told Collider, “Where they go in Season 2 and beyond, or where they even go in [‘Man of Tomorrow’], which I have not read and know nothing about because I don’t want to be spoiled, is anyone’s guess.” He continued:
“Obviously James’ vision for the DCU is intergalactic, because we’ve already seen ‘Supergirl,’ and there are references to alien beings. And I think that it’s been reported that an alien being is the big bad of the ‘Man of Tomorrow’ movie. So yeah, there’s a lot of planets out there where a lot of bad things are happening that would benefit from the intervention of Green Lanterns.”
That suggests Guy will be more involved in “Man of Tomorrow.” Lindelof acknowledged that, adding, “I think that John, for all the emotional reasons, wants to keep his focus on Earth for now.” Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly asked co-creator/showrunner Chris Mundy if he saw the final “Lanterns” scene as setting up the “Superman” sequel. “No. We really saw it in the context of our little eight-episode thing,” he said. “We wanted to end very definitively. We wanted John’s role to be very clear, and then from there hand it off to whatever James [Gunn] was gonna do.” We’ll all have to wait and see how John figures into “Man of Tomorrow.”
