Thoughts On Lanterns

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Published September 10, 2026

Thoughts On Lanterns is an exploitable X meme built around a promotional still from the 2026 DC TV series Lanterns showing Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler walking side by side. It blew up across Twitter in early September 2026 after users started redrawing the two actors as other iconic duos, spawning one of the fastest-spreading image edit formats of the month.

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Overview

Thoughts On Lanterns takes a promotional shot of John Stewart and Hal Jordan from the upcoming DC show Lanterns, played by Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler, and turns the two figures walking down the street into a reusable template2. The joke works by keeping the framing intact while swapping the actors for another famous pair, then changing the caption's franchise name to match3.

Most entries follow a fixed rhythm: a shoddy or elaborate edit pastes cartoon or live-action characters over Pierre and Chandler, and the caption asks "Thoughts on [franchise] 2026?" The edits range from painterly redraws to deliberately sloppy Photoshop, and part of the humor is how obviously altered the images look3. Popular targets so far include Cuphead4, SpongeBob and Patrick5, and Walt and Jesse from Breaking Bad6.

The format works because the source pose is so generic that almost any duo can be dropped in, which is why the meme spread so fast on X after the first viral edit hit3.

Origin & Background

Platform
X / Twitter
Creator
@fmjiggy; @jadeladeljadel
Date
2026

On September 4th, 2026, X user @fmjiggy posted the caption "Thoughts on Lanterns 2026?" attached to a promotional still of Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler from the DC series1. The original tweet was a straightforward reaction post and only picked up around 35 likes over the next six days3.

The format took off four days later. On September 8th, 2026, X user @jadeladeljadel reposted the same caption but attached a version of the image with clothes crudely edited onto Chandler and Pierre2. That edit pulled in more than 53,000 likes and over 3,700 reposts in two days, establishing the template that later edits would riff on3.

How It Spread

Once @jadeladeljadel's edited version went viral on September 8th, other X users started producing their own versions within hours2. The same day, X user @DaisyHugging posted an edit that redrew Pierre and Chandler as the two brothers from Cuphead, which passed 47,000 likes in two days4.

The next day the format jumped to more cartoon-friendly source material. On September 9th, X user @OfficixlGrug posted a version reworking the pair as SpongeBob and Patrick, which pulled in over 34,000 likes in a single day5. Later on September 9th, X user @DiscussingFish_ posted a Breaking Bad version showing Walt and Jesse in the same walking pose, which cleared 35,000 likes in about a day6.

The pattern across these edits was consistent: keep the two-figures-walking composition, swap in a recognizable duo, and change the franchise in the caption3. That low barrier to entry is what let the format run through so many fandoms in the span of a few days on X.

Frequently Asked Questions