DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have confirmed that Lanterns, the DCU series about Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart, will play a major role in the overarching story, and fans have theorized a major villain could be at the center of it.
In a Reddit thread, DCU fans theorize about the impact this Green Lantern story will have on the DCU. Co-CEO Peter Safran described Lanterns as being a terrestrial-based mystery series and has been compared to True Detective. An ancient horror is discovered on Earth and the two supercops will have to protect humanity from it. Hal Jordan and John Stewart are two of the most widely known Green Lanterns with actual comic book history together, so the partnership makes sense. The Green Lantern Corps has faced some serious threats over the years, so the list of potential supervillains that could arrive to torment the heroes is long.
Here are some villains fans think could show up in the Lanterns TV series.
Nekron
Nekron is one of the top choices after the growing rumors about the Blackest Night storyline happening in the DCU. Nekron is literally an ancient evil because he’s the manifestation of death itself. He wants to extinguish all life in the universe, but he needs a tether to do it. In the comic books, that person is William Hand, who’s known as the supervillain Black Hand.
Black Hand uses the skull of Bruce Wayne (who’s seemingly dead at the time) to create the Black Lantern Corps from fallen characters, and the heroes have to fight against them while trying to avoid turning into Black Lanterns. Season one of Lanterns could be about discovering William Hand, who’s canonically a criminal able to escape from the police, and trying to stop him before he summons Nekron.
White Martians
Others have suggested that White Martians could be the threat in question. They are a fearsome race with powerful abilities, one of which includes shape-shifting, which means they can hide in plain sight. This could make it hard for Hal and John to track them down if they’re pretending to be other people. They’re responsible for the genocide of the Green Martian civilization, and this would be an epic way to introduce everyone’s favorite Green Martian, J’onn Jonnz/Martian Manhunter.
J’onn could work with Hal and John. He’s been a police detective in the comics and he could be working the case as well, using his shape-shifting abilities. This could also be an opportunity to introduce Miss Martian, who’s in fact a good White Martian. She’s been a main fixture in the Young Justice animated series, but she’s been underserved in the comics and hasn’t had a live-action portrayal.
Red Lanterns
The Green Lantern Corps represents willpower and the Red Lantern Corps represents unadulterated anger. They’re the most ruthless of all the Lanterns and they terrorize the universe with their fiery fury. During the massacre of Sector 666 by the manhunters, Atrocitus’ planet Ryut was destroyed because they believed that life itself was too chaotic to persist. The Guardians dismantle the manhunters and the Green Lantern Corps is formed as the new galactic peacekeeping order, but Atrocitus doesn’t forgive so easily.
Atrocitus was so enraged that he killed manhunters with his bare hands, and he joins the Five Inversions. Later, after Sinestro captures and tortures him, Atrocitus uses blood magic and recites the Red Lantern oath, creates the Red Lantern power battery, and thus creates the Red Lantern Corps. Atrocitus is a big part of the Green Lantern mythos, and if they want to take more time to build up to Blackest Night, having him as the main supervillain would make sense.
Other notable supervillains listed include Darkseid, Brainiac, Pandora, Eclipso, Sinestro, and Trigon, all of whom are dangerous in their downright and could pose as viable threats to the DCU.
