Towards the end of last year, I was worried that Lanterns, the Green Lantern-centric show set in the DC Universe franchise, wouldn’t be deeply explore the DC Comics lore of these Emerald Knights given its True Detective-like premise. Thankfully, I’ve started to come around thanks to new information that’s been trickling in, like Sinestro having been cast and both the Guardians of the Universe and maybe even the Sinestro Corps being expected to appear. However, now I’ve come across a wild theory concerning one of the creepiest Green Lantern villains from the comics, and I’m hoping this ends up becoming a reality in Lanterns.
This started when I saw the news that Jason Ritter has been cast in Lanterns to play Billy Macon, the son of Garret Dillahunt’s William Macon, who was announced in November. Upon reading up on some other Lanterns news, I found a video shared on Reddit that Macon had posted on his Instagram page, and later deleted, of himself being fitted for a rubber suit made by Fracture FX Inc. That combined with the first name of Macon’s character has some people in the Reddit thread speculating that the actor is actually playing a variation of William Hand, a.k.a. Black Hand, in the upcoming DC TV show.
Introduced in 1964’s Green Lantern #29 by John Broome and Gil Kane, initially Black Hand caused trouble using a device that can manipulate the energy from a Green Lantern ring. However, after killing his family and then himself, he was revived by the first Black Lantern ring and became the living embodiment of death, like what Parallax is for fear and Ion is for willpower. He led the Black Lantern Corps to carry out the will of Nekron in the Blackest Night event, and he retains the power of a Black Lantern, allowing him to, among other things, raise the dead.
I’ll admit, it feels like a stretch to connect William Macon to Black Hand based off this limited material. I certainly think something unusual will happen with the character if Garret Dillahunt is being fitted with a suit, and it’s not unreasonable to assume that the actor was asked to take the video down by the powers-that-be at DC Studios. However, William Macon is described as “a self-righteous, conspiracy-minded man who masks his ruthless ambition behind a charming and calculated facade.” That doesn’t sound like William Hand.
All this being said, I would absolutely be down to see Black Hand adapted in this way for Lanterns. I know faithfulness to the source material is important when adapting comic book stories for film and TV, but I am in no way precious about William Hand’s backstory. If sacrificing that leads to a live-action take on Black Hand who unleashes a horde of the undead on the town in the American heartland where Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart are investigating a murder, bring it on! Presuming that the two heroes would have to team up with the Sinestro Corps rather than fight them, this could turn out to be an effective, scaled-back version of Blackest Night.
I look forward to learning if this admittedly out-there theory ends up being correct when Lanterns premieres on HBO sometime in early 2026. At this point, I’m just glad that this DC Comics property is getting another shot at live-action following the underwhelming performance of Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern movie. Oh, and let’s not forget that Guy Gardner, another Green Lantern from Sector 2814, will be present in Superman, which opens on July 11.
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