DC Studio's co-CEO James Gunn has been methodically crafting the new shared universe, which includes movie projects and TV shows that are streaming with a HBO Max subscription. Lanterns is in the latter category, with the show recently ending its eight-episode season. Gunn's fellow co-CEO Peter Safran recently spoke about what it would take for Season 2 to happen.
Lanterns' season finale finally wrapped up its mysteries, including who killed Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan. While there has been some backlash surrounding Lanterns, I'd personally love to see the show expanded with a sophomore outing on HBO. In an interview with Collider, Safran addressed a possible Season 2, offering:
If we're able to come up with what we believe to be a worthy successor to a beloved and great first season, that's what's going to dictate whether there's a second season.
Honestly, I'm not mad at this answer. Rather than looking at Lanterns as merely a moneymaking venture, it sounds like the folks at the DCU are prioritizing story over business. We'll just have to see if the show's writers and producers manage to find a way to expand Lanterns story in a way that's both satisfying and exciting.
There is no guarantee for Season 2, but there have already been some rumbling about what it might contain. For instance, writer Venessa Baden Kelly wants to bring Green Lantern Kilowog into the fold. This would be a big change to the otherwise grounded and Earth-focused show.
Later in the same interview, Peter Safran spoke more about how the Green Lantern Corps. and their history in live-action media. As he put it:
This was one great season of television based on a property that had been somewhat irradiated since 2011, right? The thing that's most gratifying about this show and this season on HBO is that it's brought Green Lantern back into the conversation, into the public culture in a really positive fashion.
He's not wrong. Ryan Reynolds' Green Lantern movie is infamous, and adapting the Corps. in live-action is a difficult task. They've continued to be used in comics, animated shows, and video games, but Lanterns helped give the property new life on the small screen.
We'll have to wait to see if Lanterns gets renewed, but Green Lanterns are going to pop up in upcoming DC movies. Specifically Man of Tomorrow, which will feature both Aaron Pierre's John Stewart and Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner. Given how the season finale left these two characters, I can't wait to see how tense it is when they reunite.
Lanterns is streaming in its entirety as part of the 2026 TV schedule. As for Man of Tomorrow, that's expected to arrive in theaters on July 9th, 2027.
