Without a whole lot of upcoming DC TV shows confirmed for live-action, fans have been anxiously awaiting Lanterns’ arrival on the 2026 TV schedule. The creative team has been keeping a fairly tight lid on the show’s storyline, comic book connections and characters without going much deeper than the general narrative synopses. In such times, fan speculation tends to run rampant, but no one ever really expects the stars themselves to play into the theories.
Yet that’s just what Deadwood vet and Lanterns co-star Garret Dillahunt did when he shared a piece of fan art on social media that posed his cowboy-leaning character William Macon as the haunting Green Lantern antagonist Black Hand. Given his support for the post, some fans assumed he was validating the idea and confirming that his character will get such a late-season reveal. Of course, that’s not really the case…or is it?
Dillahunt took part in a lengthy chat with Nerd Reactor (via YouTube) where he addressed his online actions sending fans into a tizzy, and pointed out that he was just a fan of the art itself, as well as the notion that fans are putting that much thought into what’s coming for ol’ William Macon. As he put it:
I just thought it was cool that someone was out there with some theories. I wasn't trying to confirm or deny anything at all. I just thought, 'Oh, that's interesting.' . . . 'Cool theory, bro.' [Wink]
To me, Garret Dillahunt openly talking about the Black Hand post and saying that he liked it is so much more authentic and easy to swallow than the entirety of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day promotional run when the entire cast had to dodge questions about Sadie Sink's character, the movie's central villain, and other spoiler-tethered topics. (Tom Holland straight up lied about Sink's character, which feels like an imperfect way to promote anything.)
So let's take it back to the old days, where actors had to just play along and go with the flow instead of just pleading the fifth and avoiding things. Because even after that, Dillahunt still played ball and pointed out that he still isn't going to give away anything major about his character, noting:
But I can't say anything and I think it's good that people are trying to solve it.
When the interviewer then joked about how his candidness wasn't helping dissuade fans from speculating about Black Hand, the actor replied:
I can't come out and be like, 'Hey, let me ruin the show for you.'
That's the key to all of this: just don't ruin the show. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre have done a great job of talking about their characters' headspaces without revealing anything major about what's playing out on the grand scale. We know Hal and John are investigating a murder in 2016, and that there's a somewhat similar investigation happening in 2026. And we know Hal thinks his own poop doesn't stink, and that everyone else's is just godawful.
Check out that fairly stressful dynamic playing out in the full-length trailer below, which is still playing coy with showing off Hal Jordan's full suit.
Thankfully, we won’t have much longer to wait to see learn more about Hal and Sinestro’s intense history and whether or not William Macon will be revealed as the Black Hand. Lanterns will be available to stream via HBO Max subscription when its premiere lands on August 16, 2026.
