Lanterns premieres on HBO next month, with prolific comic book writer Christopher Cantwell (Doctor Doom, Iron Man) recently confirming that he's joined the writers' room for Season 2.
While DC Studios and HBO haven't officially announced a second batch of episodes—we'd imagine that will hinge on how Season 1 is received, both critically and in terms of viewership—a new update from Home of DCU bodes well for Green Lantern fans.
Apparently, the writers' room has now been fully assembled, meaning writing is well underway on Lanterns Season 2. That's a confident move on DC Studios' part and an indication that James Gunn and Peter Safran have more stories in mind for the DCU's Green Lantern Corps.
It's previously been reported that Kyle Chandler has only signed up to play Hal Jordan in one season of Lanterns, meaning the spotlight would likely be solely on John Stewart in a potential second season. Would that also be an Earthbound tale inspired by True Detective? It's hard to say, though it seems doubtful that the series would suddenly become a Star Wars-like cosmic adventure featuring colourful aliens.
Lanterns is the only DC Studios property to get a Hall H panel at next weekend's San Diego Comic-Con, and the expectation is that a new trailer will be released then. Whether it will finally show more of the titular duo suited up and creating constructs remains to be seen, though it's possible that there's not much in the way of costumed action to show off.
While the "fabulously obnoxious" Guy Gardner, played by Nathan Fillion, appears "a few different times," showrunner Chris Mundy has confirmed that we won't see any alien members of the Green Lantern Corps in Lanterns Season 1.
"There are a bunch of other people from the mythology, from the canon, but not the other Lanterns," he explained. "We talk about them at different times, but they're not gonna interact with them in the course of this season."
Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
Alongside Kyle Chander and Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Nicole Ari Parker, Jason Ritter, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones round out the cast.
The pilot 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.
Lanterns is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, James Gunn, Peter Safran, King, Ron Schmidt, and Hawes, and is based on the DC comic characters from Green Lantern.
Lanterns is set to premiere on HBO on August 16.