Lanterns writer Vanessa Baden Kelly had the perfect response to fans calling the show “woke.” The Episode 3 writer addressed the online backlash head-on by pointing directly to the character’s own decades-long comic book history.
Vanessa Baden Kelly responds to ‘woke’ Lanterns backlash
Lanterns Episode 3 writer Vanessa Baden Kelly addressed the “woke” backlash against HBO Max’s DC series in an interview with TheWrap.
Baden Kelly said she noticed fans sharing 1970s comic panels in their criticism of the show. “I stumbled across some people calling the show ‘woke,’ and there were people putting panels in the reactions and the comments, and they were panels from the 1970s John Stewart,” she told TheWrap. “Him calling people ‘Whitey’ or him opposing wars, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.'”
Baden Kelly pointed out that the character has always engaged with racial politics since his 1971 debut. “I read a bunch, but I couldn’t read all of it, and you’re just like, that’s right, just keep it in the front of your mind — that this is who John Stewart’s always been,” she added. The original comic by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams featured Stewart as a confident, proud hero modeled after Sidney Poitier.
The writer also explained the team’s approach to building John Stewart’s new origin for the show. “What (does it mean) to be a Black man and get that ring when other characters canonically had it?” Baden Kelly said. “We really started discussing how much more a Black superhero has to do to be accepted in that world.” She compared John’s upbringing to famous Black athletes trained from young ages like Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters.
Co-creator Damon Lindelof also addressed the balance between honoring and expanding DC canon. “When you’re playing around with the canon, you have to treat it like you’re handling plutonium,” Lindelof told TheWrap. “But at the same time, there’s kind of no fun and creativity and originality in that.” He emphasized finding new contextual frameworks for the character’s fearlessness.
Lanterns has garnered over 9.3 million views in its first three days and holds a 94 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. Aaron Pierre will reprise his role as John Stewart in the upcoming DCU film Man of Tomorrow.
