There’s A Wild Lanterns Theory Going Around Involving One Of The Creepiest Green Lantern Villains, And I Hope It Ends Up Being True

DC Rebirth artwork of Hal Jordan Green Lantern
(Image credit: DC Comics)

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.

Green Lantern villain Black Hand kneeling next to tombstone with his name etched in it

(Image credit: DC Comics)

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.

Max: Plans start from $9.99 a month

Max: Plans start from $9.99 a month
You'll have a lot of DC movies and TV shows on here to keep yourself entertained while waiting for the premiere of Lanterns. Pay from $9.99 a month for its With Ads plan, now with three tiers available to those after a Max subscription. Prepay for a year and save up 20%.

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 ReynoldsGreen 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.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.