Earlier this week, Jeff Sneider reported that acclaimed Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell has come aboard Lanterns as a new writer and executive producer ahead of a potential season 2 renewal.
The HBO Max series, which stars Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, has not been officially renewed for a second season, but Cantwell has now confirmed that he's joined the team.
We probably won't know for certain if Lanterns will return for a second run until the viewership figures come in, but this is a sign that DC and HBO are confident that the show will continue beyond a single season.
Damon Lindelof and Tom King are expected to remain on board, but Sneider believes "HBO took the opportunity to bring in an experienced TV veteran, and Cantwell was the perfect fit, as it just so happens that he’s a prolific comic book writer. Cantwell has worked on such titles as Iron Man, Captain America, Doctor Doom, Gold Goblin, The Mask, and Star Wars: Obi-Wan."
"Cantwell is coming aboard now because the writer’s room for Lanterns will soon be reconvening despite the lack of official renewal. TV networks often want to have scripts ready so they can start production faster if a show is picked up for a second season, which again, feels somewhat inevitable here — the pending Paramount merger notwithstanding."
DC Studios released a full trailer for Lanterns on Monday, and this latest look at the HBO series went over a lot better with Green Lantern fans than the first teaser.
Lanterns is set to debut on August 17 and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios. The pilot episode is co-written by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, who are co-creators for the series. Mundy serves as showrunner. The first two episodes are directed by James Hawes, with Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov also tapped to direct. The series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, James Gunn, Peter Safran, King, Ron Schmidt, and Hawes. Based on the DC comic characters from Green Lantern.
The series stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
The series follows new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
"This is a story of a couple of Green Lanterns John Stewart and Hal Jordan," James Gunn said of the project when it was first announced. "We have a few other Lanterns peppered in there but this is really a terrestrial based TV show which is almost like True Detective with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over Precinct Earth in it they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our largest story of the DCU."