The LANTERNS stars open up about Hal Jordan and John Stewart’s bond, the finale, fan reactions and why Aaron Pierre believes viewers have only now met the John Stewart who will define the DCU.
SPOILER WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for LANTERNS Season 1.
The first season of LANTERNS may be over, but Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are still processing what happened between Hal Jordan and John Stewart.
Following the Season 1 finale, Chandler and Pierre reflected on the emotional conclusion of HBO’s DC series during a press conference attended by Nerdtropolis. Their conversation revealed how deeply the actors connected to Hal and John, why Pierre believes the audience only begins meeting the definitive John Stewart halfway through the season, and how filming the finale affected Chandler when he finally watched it back.
For Pierre, finishing the eight-episode season also brought an unexpected wave of emotion.
“I’m feeling quite emotional, to be honest with you,” Pierre said while discussing the experience of watching the series roll out alongside viewers.
After six months of production, 116 shooting days and a season built largely around the evolving relationship between its two Green Lanterns, the finale gave both actors a chance to look back on what they had created.
Aaron Pierre Says Episodes 5–8 Reveal the John Stewart Fans Will Know
John Stewart does not enter LANTERNS as the fully formed Green Lantern longtime DC fans may expect.
Pierre said understanding the difference between the John viewers meet at the beginning of the season and the hero he becomes was one of his biggest challenges.
“John Stewart really appears from Episode 5 through to 8,” Pierre explained. “That’s John Stewart.”
Pierre described the first four episodes as the story of “the boy before he becomes the man.”
The distinction became essential to his performance.
As a longtime John Stewart fan himself, Pierre admitted there were moments early in the season when his instincts told him John would react differently. Instead of immediately playing the confident and commanding Green Lantern associated with the character, he had to remind himself John had not reached that point yet.
Episodes 1 through 4 introduce a man with extensive life experience, including his background as a Marine and elite sniper, but becoming part of the Green Lantern Corps places him in unfamiliar territory.
“He’s green, no pun intended,” Pierre said.
By Episode 5, Pierre felt John had earned the confidence audiences begin seeing from him.
The later episodes allow John to become more assertive, take calculated risks, and increasingly resemble the Green Lantern Pierre expects viewers to follow moving forward.
“John Stewart in 5 to 8 is who we’re going to, over the years, become familiar with and connected with,” Pierre said.
He went even further, connecting the evolution directly to John’s larger future.
“That’s our John Stewart, whether that’s in the DC Cinematic Universe or whatever it is.”
For anyone wondering whether LANTERNS was designed simply as a self-contained introduction to the character, Pierre’s comments suggest the first season was also about building the foundation for the John Stewart audiences could continue seeing beyond this story.
John Stewart’s Real Superpower Is Not Being Fearless
Fear runs throughout the first season, but Pierre does not believe John’s strength comes from eliminating it.
“John’s superpower, in my opinion, subjectively, is not being fearless,” Pierre said. “It’s the ability to acknowledge fear and overcome it.”
Pierre hopes viewers notice something different about John when rewatching the opening episodes after knowing where the season ultimately takes him.
John quietly begins recognizing just how much he still has to learn.
Instead of rejecting Hal’s experience or pretending he already understands the responsibility placed before him, John gradually accepts becoming a student.
“He leans into it so heavily,” Pierre said. “He doesn’t lean away from it with arrogance or with delusion.”
John searches for opportunities to improve, learn, and become capable of carrying the responsibility of a Green Lantern.
His growth does not happen because fear disappears.
It happens because John keeps moving despite it.
Kyle Chandler Cried Watching Hal and John’s Final Scene
Hal Jordan’s journey reaches a far more emotional destination.
Chandler revealed he became emotional while watching the final episode and seeing Hal’s last scene with John.
The actor compared the feeling to winning a state championship and suddenly having every moment of work leading up to it hit at once.
“All the work that you put in slams into you at one moment on the field,” Chandler said.
Watching Hal say goodbye to John brought those memories back.
“I did have to gently wipe away a tear so my wife didn’t make fun of me,” Chandler joked.
For Chandler, the sequence represented more than the ending of a character arc. It brought back memories of the cast, crew, and months spent making the season.
“It was like saying goodbye to a lot of old friends and a lot of great memories and a lot of experiences,” he said.
Hal and John’s relationship also became deeply personal for Chandler.
The actor lost his father when he was 14, and he said the father-son element he discovered between Hal and John became an important part of understanding their connection.
“Hal had that going on with John, that father/son relationship,” Chandler said.
The dynamic became clearer to him while filming, particularly as Hal found himself able to pass something on to John.
“In the end,” Chandler said, John “won my heart over.”
Hal ultimately becomes capable of doing for John what Chandler believes his own father would have done for him.
Hal Jordan and John Stewart’s “I Love You” Moment Completed Their Story
One of the finale’s most memorable moments arrives when Hal asks John about the last thing Kerry said to him.
John provides the answer, allowing Hal to respond with an “I love you too.”
Chandler believes the moment captures both Hal and the Halogram.
Throughout the season, audiences see different versions of the character, but Chandler never considered them completely separate.
“The two of them were never fully separated,” Chandler explained, describing the Halogram as an extension of Hal’s subconscious.
Hal spends much of the series unable to reach certain emotional truths.
The Halogram eventually can.
For Chandler, the final exchange with John brings both sides together.
“It sums up Hal. It sums up Halogram.”
The emotional payoff also reflects something Chandler praised repeatedly about the writing. LANTERNS deals heavily with morality, love, fear, loss, and doing the right thing without allowing those themes to overwhelm the characters.
“There are a lot of good things to be said in the show,” Chandler said, adding that many of them feel relevant to the world today.
Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler Built a Real Brotherhood
Hal and John’s connection was not created entirely in front of the camera.
Pierre said he and Chandler quickly discovered they shared considerably more than their different backgrounds might suggest.
“Kyle and I couldn’t be any more different,” Pierre said.
They grew up in different places and followed very different journeys, but curiosity about each other turned those differences into a strength.
Over six months of filming, the actors developed what Pierre described as a genuine friendship, closeness, and brotherhood.
Such a relationship was especially important given the demands of the production.
Pierre recalled 12- to 14-hour days across approximately 116 shooting days, requiring both actors to become comfortable being vulnerable with one another very quickly.
“One of the pillars of this show is our dynamic and our connection as characters and actors,” Pierre said.
Without that connection, Pierre believed the series would have been in trouble.
Instead, the relationship grew beyond what the production required.
“We genuinely, sincerely developed a friendship and a closeness and a brotherhood that is not a given in these situations,” he said.
One Major Hal and John Scene Means More After the Finale
Both actors were also asked which earlier moment viewers might see differently after knowing how Season 1 ends.
Chandler pointed toward Hal and John’s car conversation in Episode 4.
The scene strips away much of Hal’s humor and gives Chandler a chance to play the character with unusual directness.
“I really did trust you,” Hal tells John.
For Chandler, the line became more than dialogue.
“I made it very real,” he said. “I really did trust him.”
Knowing where Hal and John eventually end up gives the scene additional weight. Long before their relationship fully develops, the foundation for their eventual connection is already visible.
Chandler also singled out the finale moment where Hal manages to trick John into effectively telling him he loves him.
“I thought that was just brilliant,” Chandler said of the writing.
Production behind the heavier Episode 4 scene was considerably lighter.
Pierre revealed the night shoot went on long enough for him and Chandler to eventually hang out together in Pierre’s trailer watching clips from the original Oliver Twist.
The musical stayed with Chandler.
Pierre apparently got one song stuck in his co-star’s head for weeks.
Aaron Pierre Calls LANTERNS One of His Proudest Career Moments
The reaction from viewers appears to have made the experience even more meaningful for Pierre.
Neither actor spends much time on social media, but Pierre has experienced the response directly through people approaching him in public.
Fans from different walks of life have shared how specific moments affected them emotionally.
Pierre described those encounters as “precious.”
“If I could put those moments in a bowl, I would,” he said.
The response helped reinforce how much the series means to him now that its first season has reached the finish line.
“This show is very special,” Pierre said.
Whatever happens next, he already knows where LANTERNS stands within his career.
“This is and will always be, no matter what happens next, one of the proudest moments in my career.”
LANTERNS Season 1 Was Always About Hal and John
Superhero television often builds toward the next battle, villain, or universe-altering event.
LANTERNS ended its first season with something smaller and arguably more important: two people finally understanding each other.
Pierre believes the show succeeds because its differences are treated as opportunities for connection rather than conflict. Hal and John come from different generations, backgrounds, and experiences, but their relationship gradually reveals how much they share.
Chandler reduced the creative environment behind the series to one word: trust.
Trust between performers. Trust in the writers. Trust in the directors. Trust in the people surrounding them.
Pierre similarly said scenes could never become about an actor focusing inward. His attention needed to remain on Chandler, while Chandler’s attention remained on him.
For Chandler and Pierre, however, closing the first chapter of Hal Jordan and John Stewart’s story appears to have meant saying goodbye to something just as meaningful behind the camera.
All eight episodes of LANTERNS Season 1 are now available to stream on HBO Max.
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Sean Tajipour
Sean Tajipour is the Founder and Editor of Nerdtropolis and the host of the Moviegoers Society and Reel Insights Podcast. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association. You can follow on Twitter and Instagram @Seantaj.
