DC fans had expected news on Lanterns Season 2 and a potential renewal at HBO before the end of the year, maybe even around Thanksgiving, and then DC Studios imploded. The shockwaves from yesterday’s announcement that James Gunn and Peter Safran are out as co-presidents of DC Studios are still being felt, with plenty of ramifications about the future of the franchise still left unanswered. Though it would appear that Gunn’s Man of Tomorrow movie, currently in post-production and set for July 2027, will still go forward, the reality is that anything else in the DCU is a big shrug at this point.
Among them, the plans for Lanterns as a potential TV tentpole in the DCU. Speaking with The Playlist at an FYC event for the HBO hit, Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy opened up about how things may have changed for the show in light of recent news. According to Mundy, “We thought everything had settled [after the merger]. I can imagine a world where everyone retreats to their corners, but then, you know, it’s a coin flip, 50/50.” This may not feel like a ringing endorsement for some fans, and could lead to a quiet cancellation of the show.
It’s worth noting that Lanterns was developed and released largely as a standalone story, though one intrinsically tied to the DCU in major ways. Despite the show’s ending being something of a cliffhanger about John Stewart’s DC status, fans already know that Aaron Pierre will return to the role in 2027’s Man of Tomorrow, meaning we’ll at least get the next chapter of his story in some form, even if it’s not a new batch of episodes.
That said, renewing TV shows in Hollywood is something that comes with a ticking clock. Even though a writers’ room was formed over the summer to consider ideas for a Season 2 of Lanterns, that’s not a commitment to making those episodes, and the previously signed talent deals have an expiration date before they would need to be renegotiated. For an in-demand star like Aaron Pierre, that could be a costly one, but in the end it all depends on something that we don’t fully know the answer to: the status of the DCU as a whole.
The rumor mill is swirling about how new DC Studios boss Jeremy Latcham will hit the ground running, and what that means for the films and TV shows already in development at the studio. One assumes that Man of Tomorrow will still be released next year, but, ironically, James Gunn and Peter Safran inherited the same situation when they took over and had major DC movies pending release. Two of them, Aquaman and The Flash, were released in theaters, while Batgirl was scrapped and never finished.
A world certainly exists where Latcham decides to continue the elements of the DCU that fans have already responded to. Lanterns enjoyed major viewership gains as the season continued, but it’s still a big question mark about what its future looks like. At this point, Mundy’s guess that it’s a coin flip is better odds than we might have thought yesterday.
