Lanterns Team: "Remixing" the Green Lantern Oath "Felt Right" for John

Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: lanterns

Lanterns Team: "Remixing" the Green Lantern Oath "Felt Right" for John

Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King explain why "remixing" the Green Lantern oath during the season finale of HBO's Lanterns "felt right" considering John's journey.

Published Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:37:09 -0500
by Ray Flook
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By the time the final credits rolled on the season finale of Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King's Lanterns, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) made it clear to Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) – and the Guardians – that Earth has a new Green Lantern to protect it. Guy? He can have the rest of the sector. But Stewart's "Green Lantern" is going to run more as an independent contractor. And in so many ways, he's earned it. That also meant adopting his own take on the Green Lantern oath: "In brightest day, in darkest night, I embrace my fear, I'll do what's right. I choose this ring, I choose this fight, in service to this lantern's light." In two post-season finale interviews, Mundy, Lindelof, and King explain why John choosing his own oath made sense with respect to his journey – and how they knew some fans would be clutching their pearls over the decision.

"I know Justin [Britt-Gibson], one of the writers, was like, well, we're not rewriting it, We're remixing it," Mundy shared with EW. "I think the idea was, we sort of were taking a look back at what we'd done with the season, and so John's path was not the normal path. The ring didn't choose him. He was interviewed. He was kind of raised for it. He was having to choose this thing. Then he decided not to do it, and then decided he needed to do it on his own terms. And so, it felt, we wanted to be true to the original and respectful of the original, like his version is rooted in the OG version of it. We also wanted to tweak it to talk about the themes that we talked about, and fear, and make it be a choice that he was choosing this thing, and not something he was like, 'Oh, I'm doing it because my parents wanted me to do it,' or I'm doing it because of these things."

During an extended interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mundy added about the decision, "We were definitely nervous and scared about doing it, but we started to say, 'If we're not afraid of doing an idea, then we probably shouldn't do it." Though Lindelof understood that some parts of the fandom might take issue with it (despite the oath having been changed in the past in the comics universe), noting, "It just felt right, and we understood that it's probably going to be the thing that divides the fandom, et cetera." King explained, "John is not a hundred percent a Green Lantern anymore. He has an unsanctioned lantern that has a bit of yellow and a bit of fear in it. So he's not saying the same oath as every other Green Lantern – just like a Yellow Lantern or an Orange Lantern says something different. John is this utterly unique creation that he chose for himself. So getting his own unique oath seemed to line up very much with the lore and where we're going from here. None of them said, 'I just want to copy the person before me.' So to honor that legacy and creativity, you have to push the ball a little farther."

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