Will Macon Isn’t the Manhunter in ‘Lanterns,’ but the HBO Show’s Biggest Mystery Just Got Even Weirder

‘Lanterns‘ fans spent weeks convinced that William Macon, the folksy rancher played by Garret Dillahunt, had to be the shapeshifting killer terrorizing Rushville. It made sense on paper. He was suspicious, cagey, and impossible to fully trust, which is exactly the kind of character a mystery show likes to dangle in front of its audience.

Turns out the internet’s favorite suspect was a decoy all along. The identity of the Manhunter in ‘Lanterns’ has been confirmed, and it is not the man everyone assumed it would be.

Is William Macon the Manhunter in ‘Lanterns’?

For weeks, Lanterns had introduced the mystery of the manhunter’s identity, with the revelation that it can disguise itself turning every character in Rushville into a suspect. That included Hal Jordan and John Stewart, who can barely stand one another but suddenly found themselves unable to trust anyone either.

William Macon quickly rose to the top of fan theory lists. Multiple viable Manhunter suspects turned out to be members of the Macon family, which only fed speculation around Will specifically. GamesRadar even noted that despite feeling like the least likely candidate among the key suspects, the show’s creative team could easily be hiding the Manhunter in plain sight through a low key Rushville resident like him.

Actor Garret Dillahunt did not exactly help calm the speculation either. He told SyFy that his character might be a front for someone very familiar to viewers, and that he did not want to rule out the idea that William Macon is simply a secret identity created for another purpose entirely.

Who the Manhunter in ‘Lanterns’ Actually Turned Out to Be

The real answer arrived in episode five. As revealed at the end of episode four and confirmed in the episode titled Lights Out, the Manhunter is actually Zoe Macon, played by Poorna Jagannathan. The reveal pulled the rug out from under a fanbase that had spent an entire season staring at the wrong Macon.

Jagannathan herself did not see it coming either. She said she had no idea she was playing the Manhunter until she received the script for the fourth episode, joking that everyone else seemed to figure it out except her. She added that she was grateful the twist was kept from her early on, since she believes she would have played the role too stiffly in her audition otherwise.

The performance itself carries extra weight given how the character was built. Jagannathan explained that Zoe deliberately chose the form of a South Asian woman because being perceived as an outsider gives her a higher vantage point from which to infiltrate a society, something the actress said mirrors her own experience of outsiderness becoming a professional strength.

How Will Macon Fits into the Bigger Picture

Just because Will is not the shapeshifter does not mean he is in the clear. By episode five, Hal tells Antaan directly that Will is the Manhunter, only for Antaan to remain visibly suspicious of the claim, and the group still arms up and heads for Will’s ranch anyway. That alone suggests the Macon family’s role in Rushville’s chaos is far from finished.

There is also the matter of what Will represents thematically on the show. Even with the Manhunter’s identity now revealed, the season has stayed noticeably focused on character work involving Hal, John, and the villainous William Macon rather than treating the reveal as the finish line. That suggests his storyline still has consequences to play out even now that he’s been cleared of the biggest accusation against him.

Dillahunt’s own comments about playing someone whose methods of enforcing his worldview might not look like a typical Green Lantern villain only add to that sense of unfinished business. Whatever Will Macon’s endgame is, the show does not seem finished with him yet.

The Manhunter Mystery Finally Has an Answer, but Rushville Is Not Done Yet

‘Lanterns’ spent its first half convincing viewers that the calm, calculating rancher at the center of Rushville had to be hiding something monstrous. Instead, the show pulled its biggest twist from a character fans had mostly overlooked, and did it in a way that left even the actress playing her stunned by her own casting.

With Zoe Macon’s true nature exposed and the Macon family’s secrets still unraveling week to week, ‘Lanterns’ has made it clear that clearing one suspect does not mean the mystery in Rushville is anywhere close to over.

What do you make of the show pinning its biggest twist on Zoe instead of Will, and do you think the Macon family still has more secrets buried under that ranch?