Lanterns reportedly ranks among HBO's most expensive TV series, boasting a massive $160 million budget. Many fans have wondered where the money went, especially as the DC Studios production was light on constructs and space-set scenes (even the aliens looked like regular humans).
Now, though, CoSA VFX has shared a VFX reel revealing the insane amount of hidden special effects featured in the show. Lanterns was shot in California, meaning nearly every background had to be replaced to transform it into rural Nebraska.
Even John Stewart's beard wasn't real, and it's undeniably impressive to see how many scenes were enhanced with VFX...something no one seemed to notice while watching each week.
HBO has not renewed Lanterns for Season 2, though it's not uncommon for the premium cable network to take several months to announce a show's return. Ultimately, it will boil down to whether the DCU series justified its massive budget and whether DC Studios and HBO decide a second batch of episodes is the best place to continue John's story.
"This was one great season of television based on a property that had been somewhat irradiated since 2011, right?" DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran recently said. "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."
"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," he concluded.
It's unclear what Season 2 would look like, though Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy has suggested that it would be another grounded story (meaning no cosmic battles amid the Sinestro Corps War, for example). Neither Damon Lindelof nor Tom King will return as writers.
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.
"Lanterns' leads shine bright," we wrote in our Season 1 review, "but even they can't save this abysmal adaptation of the comics that, embarrassed by the source material it's based on, delivers a woefully bland and uninspired take on Green Lantern that's another miss for the DCU."
Lanterns is now streaming in its entirety on HBO Max.