Lanterns Cast and Crew on the New Green Lantern Oath and Season 1's Emotional Finale

Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Lanterns Season 1, Episode 8!

Lanterns has ended its eight-episode run on HBO, with the finale addressing some of the show's most burning questions. How and why does Aaron Pierre's John Stewart become a Green Lantern? Is Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan truly dead, and who killed him? We finally have our answers in what turned out to be a somber but enjoyable finale episode.

IGN attended a press conference where Pierre, Chandler, and executive producers Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King spoke more about these key developments and the challenges of crafting the series. Why give John his own Green Lantern oath? Does Hal actually love John? Read on to learn more about the big twists from the Season 1 finale.

The New Green Lantern Oath

Lanterns Season 1 ultimately culminates with John Stewart embracing his destiny and becoming a Green Lantern. However, he does so strictly on his own terms. John wields Hal's old ring and pairs it with the fear-infused Lantern Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) forged for Noah (Shea Pritchard). He's a strictly unsanctioned Lantern who effectively blackmails his way into taking jurisdiction of Earth from Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion). And to reflect this unique status, John activates his ring by uttering his own oath:

In brightest day, in darkest night,

I'll embrace my fear, I'll do what's right.

I choose this ring, I choose this fight,

In service to this lantern's light.

Why introduce a new Green Lantern oath? How do these lines better reflect John's character at the end of Season 1?

"I think the idea was we sort of were taking a look back at what we had done with the season, and so John’s path was not the normal path," Mundy told press. "The ring didn’t choose him, he was interviewed, he was kind of raised for it. He was having to choose this thing, then he decided not to do it, and then decided that he needed to do it on his own terms. We wanted it to be true to the original and respectful of the original, but his version is rooted, obviously, in the OG version of it, but we also wanted to tweak it to talk about the themes that we talked about, and fear, and make it be a choice that he was choosing this thing and not something he was like, oh, 'I’m doing it because my parents want me to do it, or I’m doing it because these things.' So, I think at a certain point, you end writing a season and you have a split second to look back on what you built and what was important inside of it, you hope people will like it, and it was our way to reflect what we built."

Lindelof added, "When you watch the totality of John Stewart’s story, it’s really hard to get to the end of it and say that he is in alignment with the Corps, with the Green Lantern Corps, and Lianna, and everything that it stands for, and for a man who pledged his loyalty to the military, to his parents, that like this idea of saying 'I’m kind of beyond doing that for other organisations, and in order for me to formulate an oath, it has to be on my own terms and in my own way'."

"What we see at the end is that John is not a hundred percent a Green Lantern anymore, he has a Lantern that has a bit of yellow in it, has a bit of fear in it, and it’s not, you know, it’s an unsanctioned Lantern, as Guy says," King said. "And so, he’s not saying the same oath as every other Green Lantern because he’s not like every other Green Lantern. So, just like a Yellow Lantern says something different, or a Green Lantern says something different, or an Orange Lantern says something, this thing that John is, this utterly unique creation that he has not been given to him, that he is not chosen for but that he... chose for himself, gets its own unique oath, seemed to line up very much with the lore and where we’re going from here."

Hal and John's Mutual Love

John becoming a Green Lantern in the finale is nothing if not a bittersweet moment. The act of charging up his new ring means all traces of Hal will be purged from it, erasing the Halogram and finally putting an end to the tumultuous bond between John and Hal. But just before the Halogram dies its final death, we're treated to a final, very poignant moment between the two. Both characters tell each other "I love you," a testament to the bond that exists between John and Hal despite the latter's best efforts to push aside his trainee over the years.

Chandler and Pierre discussed the challenges of acting out that pivotal scene and why it's such an important way of wrapping up their shared, season-long arc.

"The characters, they fell in love through this action and this friendship, although it was pretty rocky, I got to say [laughs]," Chandler said. "But for that moment to occur at the end, it was just such a human factor, and it was the thing that, you know, maybe a film in the '50s or the '60s and you’ve got the Duke standing there and, you know, he’s just not going to say, [imitates John Wayne's drawl] “Well, I love you, kid”, you know, doesn’t happen that way back then. But these were words that were actually expressed, and it was really nice to be able to do that, and it was painfully exposed."

Chandler continued, "The fact of the matter is it’s a human experience, and it was a purely honest, open moment for an actor to express themselves, and it was a joyous thing to be able to do on screen. And it was easy to do with Aaron because, although I really don’t like him very much [laughs], I knew I was getting paid, so, you know, the checks were [cashed]…"

"It’s funny because Kyle and I, so much of our dynamic in the series is tumultuous [laughs], and it’s volatile, and who knows what’s going to happen at any given moment," Pierre added. "And even in our personal lives, you know, Kyle and I, particularly when we’re on set, you know, we’re constantly digging at each other, we’re constantly trying to get each other to be the laughingstock of the crew, like this is going on for six months, we’re constantly doing it. But there are certain moments within the script that, I think for Kyle and I, when we realized that kind of stopped all of that for a moment, not that that stuff wasn’t thrilling and enjoyable and a bunch of fun, but when there were moments in the script that made us stop that and really lock into the emotional beat, that was really quite moving for us, I think, as the characters but also as the individuals playing the characters. And I think that’s one of those moments, and it was really very special. And Kyle believes he made me cry on that day, I think I made him cry [laughs], but we’ll have to let the episode bear and see what the verdict is."

Were There Different Plans for the Finale?

Lanterns Episode 8 defies expectations in that it's not an epic, action-packed climax to the season. The writers clearly got all of that out of their system with Episode 5. The finale is instead a more moody, introspective affair that focuses on capping off John Stewart's emotional journey toward finally embracing the Green Lantern mantle. The producers were asked if there was a version of Season 1 that might have ended with more action and spectacle. The short answer? Not really.

"There was never a version of the finale that was more action-oriented," Mundy said. "This story was about these two guys. And so, we knew that if we landed it emotionally with them, we would have done our job. And obviously, over the course of the season, we knew there were going to be action things and all that, but... we barely even talked about it because we all just knew this is what we were going for, that that would have been distracting, that that would have been just incident instead of emotion, you know?

Details

Mundy continued, "Like what I love about the huge fist fight that those guys have is that’s a huge fistfight, but it’s like literally these two guys and it’s an emotional scene even though they’re beating the hell out of each other. And the ending had to be an even quieter connection of these two people. And so, if we were going to ask people from the very first second of the pilot to invest in these two guys and the relationship with these two guys, we just had to land it in their relationship or we wouldn’t have done our jobs."

For King, an action-centric finale would have been a "cliche" that would have turned the series into a lesser version of itself.

"I think one of our sort of sticking points from day one is no cliches," King said. "Avoid cliches like they’re the plague. As someone who consumes a lot of superhero content, that can leak into that content and make it boring and can give you the superhero exhaustion that we’ve seen a thousand pieces about. I’ve seen a lot of shows that end with no action and emotion, but I watched the finale today, I hadn’t seen it in months, it’s just the acting, to me, is more powerful, is so beautiful and so thrilling, and I’m on the edge of my seat the entire time in a way I’m not when I just see people clinging against each other and I don’t care about them. It’s not what you expect, and that’s entirely what this show has been and is sort of what we’re always going to do."

The Fate of Hal's Pet Plant Earl

The conference ended with perhaps the most pressing question of them all? What happened to Hal's beloved pet plant Earl. The finale includes a flashback scene where Hal and Earl are trapped in a burning house. Hal falls into the basement and burns in much the same way John burned back in 2016, but he, too, is saved by Manhunter technology. But what of Earl? Did he survive the blazing inferno? Did he have to be reskinned, too?

Technically, we know Earl was fine, because he interacts with John followinng Hal's murder in Episode 6. But the attendees were still quick to reassure fans and point out that this little carnivorous houseplant is a tough cookie.

"That’s an excellent question that I’ve never considered," Mundy said. "Someone went deeper than we did, and we thought we went deep. I don’t think Earl needed to be reskinned; I don’t think Earl goes down that easy…"

Lindelof concurred, saying, "Yeah, I think Earl is pretty resilient. The botanical creatures of the galaxy can grow their own skin, I would imagine. Earl probably has the thickest skin of anybody on the show, I would imagine."

Basically, if there is a Season 2, and all signs point to that right now, Earl should still be a vital part of the cast.

For more, see what James Gunn had to say about the criticisms surrounding Hal's death and brush up on every DC movie and series in development.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.