How the Lanterns finale sets up John Stewart’s DCU return in Man Of Tomorrow

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 expected to star Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart, and since “Lanterns” just wrapped, we have a much better idea of ​​how he will 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 full 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, in which John uses a lantern forged by Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) to take an oath of his choosing and essentially become a lone wolf lantern for planet Earth.

It was previously confirmed that Pierre would appear in “Man of Tomorrow” in March 2026, the news of which was announced before the August release of “Lanterns.” But as the HBO series focused on both John and Hal, it was unclear how the former would figure into the events of the film, whether Hal would be involved, and what stage of his Green Lantern career John might be at. Now, “Lanterns” has answered all those questions, preparing John to join Supes and Lex on their intergalactic mission to defeat Brainiac (Lars Eidinger) in “Man of Tomorrow.”

“Lanterns” began by clarifying a lot about the DC Universe timeline and ended by clarifying John Stewart’s place on that timeline. The series 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 2025 version of the DCU. So the 2026 scenes in “Lanterns” take place after Gunn’s film, in which Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner is already established as Earth’s Green Lantern.

In the finale of “Lanterns”, however, John warns Guy. After retrieving Hal Jordan’s Power Ring in a previous episode, John discovers that Sinestro created his own Lantern while stranded on Paul Ben Victor’s homeworld of Antaan. Sinestro’s Lantern was forged from the waters of a planet bathed in fearsome gas. With this device, John is therefore not only able to charge his ring, but also accept his fear, essentially becoming a lantern powered by his ability to recognize and overcome his own fear.

John then summons Guy to Rushville, Nebraska and informs him that he is going to become Earth Lantern while Guy covers the rest of Sector 2814. “Consider me an independent contractor,” he says. “No Guardians. No Corps. Take the stars, have fun. I’ll take the earth.” Simply put, John Stewart is an independent Lantern, driven by the ability to face his own fear, beholden to no one, and operating only on Earth. This is interesting because “Man of Tomorrow” is expected to introduce an alien android to Brainiac and will almost certainly see Superman and Lex Luthor leave the planet. How will John fit into this story? Well, it seems the writers of “Lanterns” didn’t care too much about that.

James Gunn has confirmed that ‘Man of Tomorrow’ will take place after ‘Superman’. The film will hit theaters on July 9, 2027, presumably placing it after the events of the 2026 timeline in “Lanterns.” This means that John Stewart will likely be operating as Earth Lantern by the time the film takes place. Beyond that, however, the series’ 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 even where they go in (‘Man of Tomorrow’), which I haven’t 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 extraterrestrial beings. And I think it’s been reported that an extraterrestrial being is the big bad in the ‘Man of Tomorrow’ movie. So yeah, there are a lot of planets where a lot of bad things are happening that would benefit from the Green Lanterns intervening.”

This suggests that Guy will be more involved in “Man of Tomorrow.” Lindelof acknowledged as much, adding: “I think John, for all emotional reasons, wants to stay focused on Earth for the moment.” Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly asked co-creator/showrunner Chris Mundy if he considered the final scene of “Lanterns” to be the setup for the “Superman” sequel. “No. We really saw it in the context of our little eight-episode thing,” he said. “We wanted to finish very definitively. We wanted to make John’s role very clear, and then hand it over to what James (Gunn) was going to do.” We’ll all have to wait and see how John will appear in “Man of Tomorrow.”