Lanterns Writer Says 'Nothing's Cancelled. Calm Down' Amid Concern for Season 2 Following Shock DC Shakeup

Is Lanterns Season 2 happening or not? It’s unclear, following the shock exit of DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran. Yesterday, Variety reported that Lanterns "didn't get renewed for a second season," then updated the wording of its article to say the show "has yet to be renewed for a second season."

With Skydance and new DC boss Jeremy Latcham now in charge of all intellectual property under Warner Bros.’s banner, the future of the DCU is up in the air. Gunn’s own Man of Tomorrow and Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II (the latter of which is not part of the DCU canon) still have theatrical release dates, but beyond that, what’s the plan? We don’t know.

Lanterns, which stars Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, was well-received, and reports indicated a team had been assembled to write and produce Season 2, should it be greenlit. Here’s what Variety had to say about Lanterns, specifically:

“Lanterns, their first live-action TV show, had strong viewership and averaged 19 million viewers globally per episode going into the finale. Yet an insider at the company suggests the crime drama isn’t quite capturing the zeitgeist, pointing out the show has yet to be renewed for a second season.”

That doesn’t sound good for Lanterns Season 2, although we know Pierre’s John Stewart is set to star in next summer’s Man of Tomorrow. Countering the doom and gloom around Lanterns, however, is Chris Cantwell, co-creator of Halt and Catch Fire. He was drafted in to work on Lanterns Season 2 as a writer, producer, and showrunner, were it to actually happen, and he’s been vocal about the reports about the series fate on social media.

“Dear Internet,” he began. “I haven’t heard a f***ing thing. People sometimes wonder what future seasons of Halt and Catch Fire would’ve been. They would’ve arrived at social media and AI and the characters would’ve killed themselves.

“Nothing’s cancelled. Calm down.”

That sounds definitive, but as mentioned, neither James Gunn nor Jeremy Latcham have confirmed Season 2 is actually happening. Last month, then DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran told IGN that a decision on Lanterns Season 2 would be made by the end of 2026.

Safran confirmed there was a writer's room hashing out ideas for the future of Lanterns, but it would all depend on whether or not they come up with a good enough story worthy of following up the first season. He noted that TV was an important part of DC's future, but that they were waiting to see if there was a story worth telling before giving the greenlight to Lanterns Season 2.

"The episodic world is always going to be a really important part of our overall slate, it's a great way to tell stories that need more real estate than a feature film can offer you, and it's a great way to introduce characters that we then bring into the feature world," said Safran. "And I think that Aaron Pierre and John Stewart are a perfect example of that. We introduced him in Lanterns, and audiences will see him next summer in Man of Tomorrow. So, it's really important to us in continuing to tell aspects of the story that we're not telling in the feature film world, so there's more to come.

"Listen, we'll see what happens with Lanterns Season 2. If, I think, the collective group of HBO and DC and Chris Mundy and the team all feel like we've got something that is a worthy successor to quite a beloved first season of television, then I wouldn't be surprised to see more."

But that was last month, and a lot has happened since then.

In the wake of the DC news, the Hollywood trades have reported that Skydance wasn't particularly impressed by the box office returns of Gunn's DCU, with even Superman apparently failing to do big enough numbers.

Predictably, fans of Zack Snyder’s DCEU have called for the Snyderverse to return, reinstating, for example, Henry Cavill as Superman and continuing where Snyder’s Justice League left off. There is no indication that Skydance will do so, but that hasn’t stopped fans comparing the box office returns of four years of the Snyderverse and four years of Gunn’s DCU.

We’ve got plenty more analysis of Gunn’s exit from DC Studios, including James Gunn and Peter Safran May Be Out, But Their DCU Needs to Continue, and The DCU and James Gunn's Batman Was Dead Before It Was Even Born.