Why did ‘Lanterns’ change Hal Jordan’s origin? The creators explain their risky DC canon decision
Hal Jordan’s (Kyle Chandler) origin story has always revolved around a plane crash. His father, Martin Jordan, a test pilot, died in an accident, and Hal also became a pilot before a dying alien handed him a power ring. HBO’s ‘Lanterns’ retained the crash in Episode 7, but they changed the reason behind it. The update has revised one of the most recognizable elements of the ‘Green Lantern’ mythology, and the show’s creators have explained how and why it happened.
In the episode, the Halogram, the younger version of Hal that John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) summons with his ring, reveals that Martin took his own life by crashing the plane. He claimed to have left him a note saying that he had been carrying the same pain all his life. The family called it the ‘Jordan Boys Legacy’, and Hal described his fearlessness as the result of being broken instead of brave. The Halogram confessed to being afraid of the possibility that the real Hal had died similarly, so the show’s exposition was tied to its central mystery concerning what happened to Hal.
The showrunner Chris Mundy told TheWrap that the idea came up right before filming, giving Chandler a chance to prepare the grief in his performance from the get-go. “Before we rolled camera, he knew the pain his character held so that he could incorporate that however he does, in his sort of brilliant way, into the performance he was giving,” he said. Chandler told the outlet that the update added history and darkness to the character and convinced him that the series took a different approach to the superhero genre. “It’s more to build into the character. It’s more history. It’s more darkness. It’s more pathology of the character. There’s a lot going on with these two dudes. As I’ve said before, and (Aaron) can speak for himself, but Hal had a pretty rough coming up in the world, all the stuff that happened, getting the ring, knowing about my family’s past, but look at his childhood! *laughs* I mean, come on!” Chandler said.
Damon Lindelof, one of the co-creators, who wrote the episode with comic book writer Tom King, also spoke to TheWrap about the change. He compared writing to canon to “handling plutonium,” claiming that they always sought to leave room for creative freedom, so their approach to revising the long-standing continuity was to ask how they could expand on it without betraying the established lore. To him, the question the room was asking was whether or not Hal would still be Hal if his father had not died in a test flight accident, and if not, then they should not do it. They responded to it by keeping the death and recontextualizing it.
Lindelof added that they also wanted a version of fearlessness relatable to modern audiences. He recalled asking King if there was anything in the comics that suggested Martin’s death was not an accident, to which he would typically reply by pointing out something that did. Martin’s death occurred in the comics several decades after Jordan’s introduction and has since become part of his mythos. ‘Lanterns’ airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max, with one episode remaining in its first season.
