LANTERNS Actor Breaks Silence on Their Manhunter Reveal
Lanterns has officially hit its halfway point, and Episode 4, “The Weenie,” just changed the game by revealing the truth about Zoe.
Poorna Jagannathan has now opened up about playing the Manhunter, her surprising connection to John Stewart, and why there’s a lot more going on with the character than simply being another DC villain.
The reveal comes at a rough time for Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Their partnership is falling apart, neither Green Lantern trusts the other, and Hal appears ready to follow Sinestro’s advice by discrediting his trainee and dealing with the Manhunter threat himself.
That puts Hal and John on a collision course, though their coming confrontation could ultimately be what forces them to understand each other.
We already know John chooses not to take Hal’s ring in 2016, while the 2026 storyline continues inching closer to answers surrounding the veteran Green Lantern’s apparent death. Now that Zoe’s true identity has been exposed, the Manhunter looks ready to become an increasingly important part of that mystery.
Jagannathan told Entertainment Weekly that she came to view Zoe less as a straightforward enemy and more as someone trapped by forces outside her control, describing her as "a victim of what the Guardians have created, a victim of her programming, a victim of perception."
That programming is crucial to understanding what Zoe does and why she does it. Jagannathan explained that the Lanterns creative team "really wanted this Manhunter to feel human emotions, and yet her programming will always get the better of her, even at times that she doesn’t want it.
“So I was struck by how much humanity they imbued in even the character that’s supposed to be the most evil."
That creates an interesting dynamic for a character whose actions can initially look manipulative and calculated. Zoe has seduced John twice, and after leaving his motel room, she even faked her own death.
According to Jagannathan, sex is actually part of the Manhunter’s programmed strategy. Zoe’s "MO" is “[identifying] her biggest threat and [having] sex with them" because "she will initiate the most intimate relationship with a person who has anything to do with her extinction, and she will flip them."
Her encounter with John takes on a very different meaning once that information is revealed. Jagannathan said, "That’s her way of showing John that it is me and there’s nothing to be afraid of, and I’m not a threat, so just go home. So, yeah, it reframed everything for me."
The bigger question now is whether Zoe should actually be considered a villain at all. Episode 4 reveals that the Manhunter is responsible for the unusually healthy population of Rushville, including curing William Macon’s cancer.
Those aren’t exactly the actions viewers would expect from an emotionless killing machine, particularly when Jagannathan describes Zoe as someone whose developing humanity is constantly battling against her programming.
There’s also the not-so-small matter of the Guardians of the Universe. Fans know the Guardians have a pretty lousy track record when it comes to honesty, responsibility, and admitting when they’ve screwed something up.
Zoe being a victim of their creation opens the door for Lanterns to complicate what we think we know about the Manhunters and Lianna as the remaining episodes unfold.
The series follows rookie Green Lantern John Stewart and veteran Lantern Hal Jordan as the two intergalactic cops investigate a murder in the American heartland, pulling them into a much larger Earth-based mystery.
The series also stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Nicole Ari Parker, Jason Ritter, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
Four episodes of Lanterns are now streaming on HBO Max, and with Zoe’s Manhunter identity finally out in the open, the second half has plenty of questions to answer.