Lanterns Hits No. 1 on HBO Max U.S. With 94% Rotten Tomatoes Score

Q: Is the body in the snow truly the legendary Green Lantern, or has an alien imposter taken Hal Jordan's place?

There is no definitive proof yet that the body in the snow is truly Hal Jordan, but the available evidence points to the show wanting viewers to treat it as his real death for now. On screen, the 2026 scene is presented plainly: John Stewart and Sheriff Kerry Kane find a frozen body identified as Hal, with a gunshot wound and no Green Lantern ring. That missing ring is important because co-creator Tom King has said Guy Gardner has Hal’s ring in the later timeline, reinforcing that something decisive happened to Hal. Just as important, Damon Lindelof and the other creators have spoken openly in interviews about the decision to kill Hal Jordan as a foundational part of the series, not a cheap fake-out. Lindelof said the team wanted the murder mystery to carry real emotional stakes, and Kyle Chandler himself has discussed Hal’s “demise” as the engine of the show’s larger mystery. Those comments strongly suggest the death reveal is meant to be taken seriously. Still, the show has deliberately preserved doubt. The premiere establishes that aliens can convincingly pass as humans, and much of the Nebraska case revolves around hidden extraterrestrial identities. That means an imposter, a planted body, or some other deception remains plausible inside the story. So the best answer at this stage is that Hal Jordan appears to be dead, and the creators are framing it as real, but the series has intentionally left enough room for the possibility that the body is not actually him.

Q: How did Guy Gardner end up with Hal Jordan's missing ring during the mysterious ten-year gap leading up to 2026?

No one knows yet. The show has not explained how Guy Gardner got Hal Jordan’s missing ring during the 2016-to-2026 gap; it is being treated as one of *Lanterns’* central mysteries. What is confirmed is that Hal’s ring is gone when John Stewart finds Hal’s body in 2026, and co-creator Tom King has said on the official *Lanterns* podcast that Guy “has the ring.” That means the series is deliberately setting up a question larger than Hal’s apparent death: when Hal lost the ring, why John did not inherit it, and how Guy ended up as the active Earth Lantern by the time of *Superman* in 2025 and *Lanterns*’ 2026 timeline. The timeline complicates things. Reporting around the premiere indicates Hal was Earth’s only human Green Lantern in 2016, with John being trained as a successor. Yet Guy is already established elsewhere in the DCU before Hal’s 2026 death, suggesting Hal either lost or surrendered the ring before he died, or that the ring changed hands under circumstances the show has not revealed. The most evidence-based answer, then, is that Guy’s possession of the ring is intentional setup, not a solved plot point. Future episodes are expected to explain whether Hal gave it up, had it taken, was replaced by an impostor, or whether the ring itself chose Guy over John.

3 articles · Updated · Polygon · Aug 18

FlixPatrol ranked HBO’s new DC series “Lanterns” No. 1 on HBO Max in the U.S. and No. 3 worldwide days after its Sunday premiere.
94% from critics and 86% on Rotten Tomatoes’ audience Popcornmeter helped drive the surge, reinforcing HBO’s strong 2026 run in sci-fi and fantasy.
The series follows John Stewart and Hal Jordan investigating a Nebraska mass shooting tied to aliens, a setup reviewers have compared to “True Detective with superheroes.”
A 10-year flash-forward in episode 1 appears to show Jordan dead in 2026 with his ring missing, setting up a split-timeline mystery for the rest of the season.
The breakout adds to HBO’s packed genre slate, which already includes “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” and “House of the Dragon,” with “Dune: Prophecy” Season 2 and “Harry Potter” still ahead.