Lanterns Just Cast A New Villain To Join Sinestro, And It Sounds Like He’s Going To Be Major Trouble For Hal Jordan And John Stewart

Lanterns, the Green Lantern-focused TV series set in the DC Universe, has been filming since mid-February, and slowly but surely, we’re getting a better idea of what to expect from it. For example, Ulrich Thomsen has been cast to play Sinestro in the upcoming DC TV show, and knowing the character’s history from the comics, it stands to reason he’ll have a bone to pick with Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart. Now there’s another villain who’s been thrown into the mix, and it sounds like he’ll also be causing plenty of trouble.

Paul Ben-Victor from TV shows like Entourage and Nobody Wants This has been brought aboard Lanterns to play an alien character named Antaan. According to Deadline, Antaan is focused on “exposing the truth and exacting vengeance against those who wronged his people.” Holding a deep-seated hatred for the law, he’s decided to “deliver justice on his own terms.” This will actually be Ben-Victor’s second DC Universe role, as he voiced Easy Company member Bulldozer in an episode of Creature Commandos, which can be streamed with a Max subscription.

If Antaan has the power to dispense justice as he sees fit, then it’s probably a good bet that he has enough power to make Hal and John’s life difficult. And since the Green Lanterns are essentially cosmic cops dedicated to protecting the beings in their assigned sectors of the universe, Antaan’s not going to care for them whatsoever. What’s particularly interesting, however, is how much he sounds like an established Green Lantern character from the comics.

Upon reading the description for Antaan and then going on social media to verify that other Green Lantern fans had my same train of thought, he’s reminiscent of Atrocitus, the founder of the Red Lantern Corps. Atrocitus hates the Guardians of the Universe because the Manhunters, the peacekeeping predecessors to the Green Lanterns, wiped out almost all of the inhabitants of Sector 666, where Atrocitus came from. Only he and four others survived the massacre, but Atrocitus killed the others after he was consumed by rage and became the first Red Lantern.

I wonder if this is one of those cases where the name Antaan is a misdirect and he’ll be revealed as Atrocitus later on during Lanterns’ first season. On the other hand, considering that the majority of the characters in this show are original creations so far, it could just be that Antaan is indeed someone brand-new created by showrunner Chris Mundy and executive producers Damon Lindelof and Tom King. If that’s the case and I end up liking Paul Ben-Victor’s performance as Antaan, then hopefully he can be added to the comics at a later date.

However, there is one final note I want to leave off on: this show is called Lanterns, not Green Lanterns. Perhaps this is an indication that the entire emotional spectrum will be explored, with Antaan/Atrocitus channeling the red energy of rage. Since Lanterns isn’t expected to premiere on HBO until early 2026, it’ll be a while until this is confirmed or debunked, but as a longtime reader of Green Lantern comics, my fingers are crossed that I’m onto something.