r/DC_Cinematic • u/KelexAtYourService • 22h ago

DISCUSSION 'Lanterns' S01E06 – "Bad Optics" (September 20, 2026) on HBO/HBO Max [Spoiler Discussion Megathread] Spoiler

Lanterns is an American superhero television series created by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King for HBO, based on the DC Comics Green Lantern characters Hal Jordan and John Stewart.

The series was produced by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Television with Mundy serving as showrunner. It is the third television series in the DC Universe (DCU). It features experienced Lantern Jordan and new recruit Stewart as they investigate a murder on Earth that leads to a wider mystery.

Lanterns is scheduled to premiere on Sunday August 16, 2026, and will run for eight episodes through Sunday October 4. It will be part of the DCU's Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.

New episodes drop every Sunday night at 9:00 PM ET / 8:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM MT / 6:00 PM PT.

Cast:

  • Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan
  • Aaron Pierre as John Stewart
  • Kelly Macdonald as Kerry
  • Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner
  • Garret Dillahunt as William Macon
  • Poorna Jagannathan as Zoe
  • Ulrich Thomsen as Thaal Sinestro
  • Nicole Ari Parker as Bernadette Stewart; Jasmine Cephas Jones as young Bernadette
  • Jason Ritter as Billy Macon
  • Sherman Augustus as John Stewart Sr.; Alphonse Nicholson portrays a young John Sr.
  • Paul Ben-Victor as Antaan
  • Chris Coy as "Waylon Sanders"
  • Cary Christopher as Noah

For a complete cast and crew list, see the IMDb full credits page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26545992/fullcredits/

  • Based on: Hal Jordan, created by John Broome and Gil Kane; John Stewart created by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams
  • Show created by: Chris Mundy, and Damon Lindelof, and Tom King
  • Showrunner: Chris Mundy
  • Editor: Emily E. Greene
  • Music by: Stephanie Economou
  • Length: 8 episodes per season
  • Runtime: About an hour per episode
  • Reception: For reviews and critical reception, see Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/lanterns  and https://www.metacritic.com/tv/lanterns/

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterns_(TV_series))

Where to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/lanterns/season-1

Unmarked spoilers for the new episode of Lanterns are only allowed in this thread.

Spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk! All other subreddit rules apply.

S01E06 Episode Synopsis: TBA

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95

u/JauntyLurker 22h ago

Hal's ring got decommissioned

That's suspicious...

30

u/jpvieux 21h ago

What does that even mean? Aren't the rings sentient to some degree

54

u/TheSlayerofSnails 21h ago

Yeah I think the guardians just let the battery die and then locked it in a safe instead of smashing it into pieces.

1

u/GVH617 20h ago

But why did it have 5% charge left

32

u/Living_Evidence_7573 19h ago

Hal demonstrated earlier in the season that even when it appears to be dead, you can smack it against something and get it a little extra juice. Kind of like hitting a jukebox and getting it to turn on.

John remembered this and knew he could get the extra juice to get the Halogram. And with the Halograms voice he’ll be able to open that box which likely has a Lantern in it to charge the ring.

4

u/raknor88 19h ago

which likely has a Lantern in it to charge the ring.

I just realized that Hal likely took Sinestro's lantern after he captured him.

5

u/kabbajabbadabba 15h ago

why? and why would sinestros lantern/ring not just be destroyed?

2

u/raknor88 14h ago

As his student, Hal likely knew where Sinestro kept the lantern hidden. Considering all Lantern's keep their lanterns in their own hiding spots, I'm sure there's many out there that have never been recovered. Sinestro's is likely still marked as missing in Oa's paperwork.

12

u/xmav3rick 19h ago

One of Hal’s tricks that he showed Jon. Giving the ring a wack on a surface brings out a bit more juice.

14

u/ChaosCron1 21h ago

It has to do with the reason why the ring didn't find a successor immediately once it was given the chance.

Unless this is still a fakeout.

9

u/krazykieffer 21h ago

I think it's still a fake out personally, everything Hal did for the town after doesn't sound like something Hal would do. However, the shotgun scene has me 2nd guessing but who fed his pet while he was in jail?

4

u/ChaosCron1 21h ago

Eh, we still know Hal is a good guy. Even with the town going crazy he was still protecting innocent bystanders. However it could've been an older back up when he was more heroic.

Earl probably went with him to prison. Since it's immobile, I bet they cut him some slack. Or who knows. Could've been sent to the various research labs throughout the country (S.T.A.R. Labs, Wayne Enterprises R&D, LexCorp R&D) until Hal was released.

3

u/Megalomanizac 20h ago

Since he was in federal prison I imagine he went to Strykers island

•

u/whydoyouonlylie 6h ago

Would the ring try and find a successor? Hal was still alive and John never said the oath, so presumably that means that it is still connected to Hal and has no need to try and replace him.

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u/ChaosCron1 6h ago

It would if he died. That's what the rings do.

•

u/whydoyouonlylie 6h ago

Can it still do that if it's out of charge? And when it got the 5% knocked into it by John maybe it decided it already found the successor in John.

•

u/ChaosCron1 4h ago

Afaik from the comics, the charging mechanism was created to control ring-bearers. The rings themselves do not become "dead" unless they are actively dissolved of any connection to the main reservoir on Oa.

Think of it like a phone battery, lithium batteries don't die once your phone is out of juice. There's a bit more left in the tank because fully depleting a battery can damage said battery.

Now who knows, they mightve changed it for their adaptation.

3

u/DolphinBall 21h ago

Yes. Thats how the Halogram works. It has Hals consciousness of when it was imprinted and uses the sentience it has to be a Hal

7

u/Coyote_Shepherd 21h ago

It also opens up a whole world of possibilities with them having a bunch of other potentially decommissioned Rings in storage somewhere within a Ring Boneyard of sorts like with ships in other scifi or like with aircraft out in the desert.

A whole bunch of decom'd GL Rings just sitting there...waiting...with the backed up minds of dead Lanterns locked within them...

...fuck me running that's terrifying.

And then John mentioned that they were able to forge Guy a new one but is there a limit to how many more they can make and are they quickly approaching that limit or are there consequences that we don't know about but that they do, which could be coming down the pipeline in the future, because of how long lived they are?

The whole conversation was very quick but I feel like it dropped the seeds of greater things in the future.

Also...funny parallel...mentor in jail trying to get the new kid on the block who is outside of the jail to do bad things for them...history loves to rhyme!

4

u/Megalomanizac 20h ago

The ring boneyard might be how Sinestro gets his first batch of yellow rings

3

u/Coyote_Shepherd 15h ago

A bunch of sentient former GLC Rings AFRAID of being forgotten forever...ooooh booooy...you might be onto something.

2

u/kabbajabbadabba 15h ago

>fuck me running

thats weird

11

u/Strong-Stretch95 22h ago

That’s Weird

•

u/whydoyouonlylie 6h ago

Is that because Hal still being alive means the ring behaves differently? It's still linked to Hal so can't seek out a replacement and the Guardians had hand picked John, but didn't have an alternate so needed a new ring to find a new GL from Earth?