New ‘Lanterns‘ Plot Details Change Everything - Including The Main Villain
Lanterns (2026) is already shaping up to be one of the year’s most intriguing superhero adaptations. The show, which is focused Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart, will follow the superhero and his protege as they investigate a murder mystery that may be extraterrestrial in nature. The confirmed inclusion of Sinestro in the cast, a major villain from the original comics, further seemed to solidify the direction of the show.
However, a recent interview with Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy with Entertainment Weekly raises some very big questions about that assumption. It seems like Sinestro is much more of a background figure in the show than an overt villain, with the fallout of his battles with Hal Jordan having a far more pronounced impact on the show than the actual fights. Here’s what we can tell about the plot of Lanterns given Mundy’s recent statements, including how it may be part of the show’s shift in focus to another dangerous rogue Lantern.
‘Lanterns’ Has Sinestro, But It Won’t Really Be About Him
Lanterns has a stacked cast of confirmed DC characters, with the heroic Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner all confirmed to appear in the upcoming show. There’s also Sinestro, played by Ulrich Thomsen. In most incarnations of the Green Lantern franchise, that would obviously set the character up as a big bad for the heroes to overcome. However, recent comments from Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy muddy those waters. In the continuity of the show, Mundy teases that Sinestro followed his comics incarnation to a point—serving as a "great" Green Lantern and Hal Jordan's mentor before becoming a threat to the galaxy.
However, Sinestro's influence on Hal seems to be the more pressing concern rather than the character himself. Mundy notes in his interview with EW that, "The thing that interests us is this idea [that] Hal was trained by Sinestro, Hal is training John. In the coaching tree, we're very interested in what gets passed on, what doesn't, how much is human nature. We talked a lot about programming and parenting and training...What did Hal take away from Sinestro that was good or bad? It brings up a lot of interesting worries." This suggests that in Lanterns, Sinestro will be far more important as a piece of the show’s lore rather than as an active participant in the narrative.
Sinestro Is Green Lantern’s Primary Villain—But Hal Can Be Way More Dangerous
Sinestro has been Hal Jordan’s nemesis for decades, appearing in many adaptations of the DC Universe like Super Friends (1973) and Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022) as a major threat to the universe. Sinestro was even set up as a mentor character for Hal in Green Lantern (2011), with the sequel set-up teasing his eventual transformation into a villain. However, Lanterns seems to be laying the groundwork for Sinestro to be a background player instead of an outright villain. This suggests that the show has a different mission in mind for Hal, who will be still dealing with his own hangups regarding his former mentor.
It’s important to remember, then, that Hal Jordan is even more dangerous. In the comics, the destruction of Coast City during the “Death & Rebirth of Superman” storyline pushed Hal Jordan into a very grim place, leading him to become the villainous Parallax. While the character was eventually redeemed, his actions as Parallax could easily be used as the inspiration for the DC Universe’s Hal Jordan, explaining why the show is reportedly set to take place during two different time periods—one where Hal could be around, and one where Hal could be gone or a threat.
Why ‘Lanterns’ Is Doing Something Different
Lanterns is a very different take on the Green Lantern mythos, with a clear focus on keeping the humanity of the characters front and center over just the explosive and colorful action beats. Citing True Detective (2014) as a tonal inspiration point highlights how grounded the show really wants to be, even with its alien technology and distant worlds. The main villain not necessarily being Sinestro further illustrates how far the show is willing to diverge from the classical approach to the material for the sake of its own story.
The show, according to Mundy, is going to be largely focused on the cycles people can go through. Hal, still clearly dealing with the fallout of his training under Sinestro, will be forced to reckon with those lessons when he’s placed into a mentorship role for John. That ten-year time gap and the shot of Guy Gardner speaking to an unseen person in a prison cell raises even more questions, given that Guy is the Green Lantern in the “present day” DCU as seen in Superman (2025). The plot details about Lanterns don’t give too much away, but they do suggest that the villain might not just be a mustache-twirling Sinestro but rather a more complicated take on a comic’s idea.
