SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Season 1, Episode 3 of “Lanterns,” now streaming on HBO Max.
From the series’ opening scene, “Lanterns” sets up John Stewart’s (Aaron Pierre) calling to one day step into his own as Green Lantern. But it’s not until Sunday’s episode that we learn just how long John has been preparing and training — at the direction of his parents — to one day take Hal Jordan’s (Kyle Chandler) title.
“It was a gift to have the opportunity to explore each of these characters with such enormous depth,” Pierre tells Variety of filming Episode 3. “It’s not a given that you get to have this much experience with a character, and live this much with a character in your portrayal.”
In the latest “Lanterns” episode, John is grilled about his difficult life choices by one of the Guardians (Laura Linney) to see whether he’s worthy of replacing Hal. It’s the moment John has been waiting for all his life — the moment he gets to prove exactly why he is worthy of the ring.
“I know exactly why me,” John says at the beginning of the interview.
The episode cuts back and forth between John’s tense interview and his upbringing, revealing how John was conditioned to be fearless from a young age. The flashbacks show how desperate his parents become after John Stewart, Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson) is tested by the Guardians in the middle of the night, ultimately failing to become Green Lantern because he shows fear. Investing in John’s future is how the family finds salvation.
Knowing how everything John has done in his life has been with the goal of one day becoming Green Lantern, including joining the Marines and isolating himself from other people in his life, informed how Pierre played his budding dynamic with Chandler from the beginning.
Jones wanted to show that despite her stern attitude with John and forcing him to grow up, her love for her child always comes through.
“The importance of having no fear in a society, and also being a person of color in this country, fear is instilled in our ancestry as well,” Jones says. “That was also an important piece to talk about. How do we extract that for him to become the Green Lantern?”
The idea of raising John to be the next Green Lantern is largely born out of his father’s trauma. Investing in his son, and doing everything he can to give John the highest odds possible, becomes the only way he knows how to move forward.
“He doesn’t want to let his son down. Essentially, he felt like he let himself down, he let his community down, let his wife down, so now it’s up to him to make sure that his son doesn’t feel that way and doesn’t go into the same spiral of depression,” Nicholson says. “It’s really cool to see him protect his son in a really tough way, but it’s tough love.”
“It’s him taking a step into his own lane and really showing how fearless he is because that’s a huge risk, right?” Nicholson says. “He showed an immense amount of confidence, and I’m proud as his father to have shown him how to have that confidence early on.”
As Pierre looks back on filming, one of the most enjoyable parts of the episode was getting to work with the child actors, including Jayce Eiland and Cairo Cash Lee, who play the younger versions of John.
