Jonathan Millar 
Anil Krishna 
James Oconner 
How Lanterns Episode 3 Changes John Stewart’s Origin Story — And Why It Matters for the DCU
© HBO
Spoiler Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Episode 3 of HBO’s Lanterns.
Episode 3 of HBO’s Lanterns finally puts John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) at the center of the story, and it goes much deeper into his family history than the earlier episodes did. We already had hints that there was something unusual about John and his connection to the Green Lantern Corps, but this episode starts explaining where that connection may have come from. The problem is, Lanterns isn’t simply adapting John Stewart’s comic-book origin here. It is changing a pretty important part of it, making his potential something that can be traced through his family and even his genetics. That might sound like a small change on paper, but it actually affects one of the most important things about John Stewart: why he deserves to be a Green Lantern in the first place.
John Stewart’s New Origin
The episode begins with a flashback involving John’s father, John Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson), who was chosen by Abin Sur’s Power Ring to become Earth’s first Green Lantern. There is just one problem: John Sr. admits that he is afraid. The ring rejects him, and what follows is a pretty miserable decline into alcoholism. Later, a Guardian of the Universe visits John’s mother, Bernadette (Nicole Ari Parker), and explains that the potential the ring detected in John Sr. wasn’t simply about his personality or courage. It was apparently part of his genetic makeup, something that could be passed down to his son. Bernadette then raises John Jr. with one very specific goal in mind, training him to become someone who doesn’t fear anything.
That is quite a different idea from the John Stewart fans know from the comics. Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams introduced Stewart in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #87 in 1971, and the Guardians chose him as Hal Jordan’s backup because of the person he already was. His courage wasn’t inherited. His qualification came from his choices, his sense of justice and his willingness to stand up to people in power. In his first appearance, Stewart proves himself by confronting corrupt police officers while trying to protect civilians. That’s important because the original version of John Stewart isn’t special because he was born with something in his blood. He’s special because of what he chooses to do with himself.
Is Lanterns Leaning Into the “Chosen One” Idea?
This change also puts Lanterns closer to a familiar idea in modern franchise storytelling: the hero who was always destined to be extraordinary. We’ve seen versions of this in plenty of places, including The Amazing Spider-Man and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, where a character’s abilities or importance are connected to their family or biology. It can work, especially when the family history actually adds something meaningful to the character, and in John’s case there is definitely some interesting material here. His father’s failure, his mother’s decision to train him and John’s own struggle with fear give the story a more personal angle than simply saying, “he was chosen because he’s brave.”
Still, there is a slight danger in going too far with it. The Green Lantern mythology has always been built around the idea that the ring chooses people who can overcome fear through willpower. That’s a pretty powerful concept on its own. If John’s ability to become an exceptional Lantern is instead something he inherited genetically, some of that meaning gets shifted. It becomes less about what John has fought through during his life and more about what he happened to be born with. The show doesn’t necessarily have to abandon the former idea, but it will need to prove that John’s choices still matter more than his DNA.
What This Could Mean for John Stewart in the DCU
This is where the change becomes much more interesting. Lanterns appears to be positioning John Stewart as one of the major figures in the new DC Universe, particularly after the events surrounding Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) in the premiere. If John is eventually going to become one of the central Green Lanterns of this universe, the explanation for his powers and his place within the Corps is going to matter well beyond this one episode.
The series is also setting up the possibility that Stewart could be an unusually powerful Lantern, capable of creating complicated constructs without depending entirely on a ring. From a purely visual standpoint, that’s a pretty exciting prospect for future DCU movies and shows. But the character will be stronger if the series remembers that John Stewart’s greatest asset has never really been raw power. It’s his discipline, his courage, his tactical mind and his ability to keep going when things get ugly. Lanterns can change his origin, sure, but hopefully it doesn’t lose sight of the man underneath all that cosmic mythology. That’s ultimately what has kept John Stewart relevant for more than five decades.
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