Lanterns Episode 1 Seemingly Kills Off A Major DC Comics Character

Contains spoilers for "Lanterns" Season 1, Episode 1

Ever since fans learned that HBO's "Lanterns" would essentially be a murder mystery show, rumors started circulating that the person who dies is a very particular Green Lantern. You may have bumped into online chatter about "Superman" and "Peacemaker" Season 2's Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) becoming the murder victim in the "True Detective"-flavored show. However, the very end of the "Lanterns" series premiere reveals that the truly big death of the episode is none other than Earth's current primary Green Lantern: Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler).

Hal's demise is a cool and shocking twist that wasn't on Looper's list of predictions for HBO's Green Lantern series — but is he really dead? In the 2024 timeline of "Lanterns" Season 1, Episode 1, Hal and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) investigate an alien-related football field mass shooting in Rushville, Nebraska. In the end, Hal is found dead in 2026, without his ring and frozen at the same spot where he sat surveying the crime scene in 2024. Guy Gardner doesn't even turn up in the episode, apart from a slightly agitated phone call early on.

Let's face it: A superhero's death is rarely permanent in the comics. There's no reason to believe that the same wouldn't apply to a superhero show unless it unequivocally states that a character is dead — and even then, it should be taken with a pinch of salt. This is doubly true when plot twist master Damon Lindelof is one of the creators behind the show, which happens to be the case with "Lanterns." 

Like most seasoned superheroes, Hal Jordan has been known to die in the occasional story. This happened recently in Joshua Williamson's vast "Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths" DC Comics story arc, but it turned out to be a fake-out orchestrated by none other than John Stewart. Could something like that be taking place on "Lanterns," too?

Regardless of what the truth behind Hal's apparent demise is, the one thing we can be be reasonably sure about is that this isn't his only episode on the show. Since the main murder mystery takes place in 2024 and Hal's evident death is specifically shown to happen in 2026, Mr. Jordan will still have plenty of time to establish himself as one of the better live-action versions of Green Lantern. This is a good thing, because the comic book versions of Hal and John are two of the best Green Lanterns of Earth and it would be a shame to cut the duo's DCU time short.