​​Nathan Fillion's Small But Vital Return As Guy Gardner In Lanterns, Explained

Mild spoilers ahead for "Lanterns" Episode 6, "Bad Optics."

Despite telling a sprawling tale of intergalactic alien warfare, "Lanterns" has mostly managed to stick to its promise of delivering a grounded "True Detective"-style show. As such, it was hard to see how Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner, who we last saw in James Gunn's charming crowd-pleaser "Superman," would fit into this prestige HBO superhero drama. But the series' writers pull it off with Episode 6, giving fans a brief but significant Gardner cameo that clarifies his place in the DC Universe and proves he's more than a hot-headed jerk.

"Lanterns" Episode 5 completely changed John Stewart's (Aaron Pierre) story, with the Green Lantern hopeful ultimately refusing the Power Ring and walking away from the role he'd been training for his entire life. Episode 6 picks things up 10 years later in 2026, where we learn that while John has become an architect, Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan took the fall for all the destruction wrought in Episode 5 and languished in prison before returning to Rushville, Nebraska, to try to make amends. As we've known since Episode 1, however, he quickly winds up dead, and John is determined to find his killer.

As part of his investigation, John summons Fillion's Green Lantern by using a signal Gardner installed in the center of town (à la Batman's Bat Signal in Gotham City). When Gardner arrives, John is in jail for beating up a gang of locals who didn't take too kindly to his activating the Lantern signal. At this point, things could have gone either way. Gardner isn't exactly the type of character we envisioned showing up in this more grounded DC Universe outing. But it becomes clear almost immediately that both the show's creatives and Fillion himself handled this particular cameo perfectly.

"Lanterns" was always touted as a "True Detective" meets "Watchmen" mystery series. But thanks to trailers and promotional material, fans have been aware from the very beginning that Guy Gardner was going to make an appearance. That seemed like a risky move that could potentially upset the careful tone established early on in "Lanterns." After all, Gardner was last seen battling a giant Kaiju who attacked Metropolis in "Superman" and fending off an entire army by using his Power Ring to construct giant green hands that rose from the ground with middle fingers aloft. It's not exactly the kind of thing you'd necessarily want to see in HBO's grounded, "True Detective"-style drama.

When we first see Gardner in "Lanterns" Episode 6, though, he and John Stewart have a combative chemistry not unlike that of John and Hal Jordan. That helps distract from Gardner's infamous haircut and oddly pristine superhero costume. John clearly has no time for his nonsense, either, and that serves as a way of injecting potential audience aversion to his presence into the world of the show itself.

What's more, Gardner is treated as persona non grata from the start. Thanks to Hal's actions in Episode 5, the citizens of Rushville aren't too fond of the Green Lantern corps, hence the locals try to give John a beating for activating the signal (which, as it happens, has been defaced by years of graffiti). But this hatred for the Green Lantern corps, and, by extension, Guy Gardner, acts as more than just a continuation of the narrative from Episode 5. It serves a meta purpose as well, positioning Gardner as not only unwelcome in Rushville but likewise in a show that really has no place for his cartoonish energy.

Clearly, the "Lanterns" writers knew that Guy Gardner wasn't going to be the best fit for the series and wisely kept his involvement to a minimum. But they had to address his existence somehow. After all, while "Lanterns" Episode 1 did clarify the DC Universe timeline somewhat, major questions remained about how Gardner ended up with the Power Ring in 2025's "Superman" and why John Stewart wasn't wearing a ring in that episode's flash-forward to 2026.

Now, thanks to Episode 5, we know the answers. John turned down the role of Green Lantern, and Gardner was next in line. But with the final three episodes of "Lanterns" Season 1 seemingly set to focus on the mystery of who killed Hal Jordan in 2026, the show needed to provide a sense of what John and Hal's relationship to their successor was like. Thankfully, Episode 6 has done just that. 

What's more, after John asks Gardner to fetch Hal's suit and Power Ring from the planet Oa (home of the Guardians), he obliges based on the fact he owes John for passing on the ring and allowing him to become Green Lantern. But there's also a sense that Gardner does it out of respect for Hal, whose funeral he attends. In that way, "Lanterns" Episode 6 demonstrates that Gardner — though a loud-mouthed and overly confident jerk — isn't actually all that bad a guy, which explains why the ring went to him after John refused the Green Lantern mantle. The cherry on top is that John only wanted the Power Ring so he could activate the Halogram and further his investigation into Hal's death.