LANTERNS Season 2 Already Has “A Lot of Runway” and Damon Lindelof Has Some Big Casting Ideas

Lanterns hasn’t even premiered yet, and the people making the new DCU series are already looking at where those Green Lantern rings could take them next.

While HBO and DC Studios haven’t officially ordered a second season, co-creator Damon Lindelof says there’s plenty of room to keep the story going if audiences show up for Season 1.

There’s also already some movement on the creative side. Comic book writer and producer Christopher Cantwell has reportedly joined the series as co-showrunner alongside Chris Mundy, fueling speculation that Lanterns Season 2 could be moving closer to becoming a reality.

During the Lanterns premiere, Lindelof was asked by ScreenRant about the possibility of another season, and it sounds like the team has started thinking seriously about what comes next.

"If it's successful and people love it, there's a lot of runway to launch into future seasons. But I think Chris Mundy has already started a new writers' room, figuring out what new stories could be for Lanterns."

That’s certainly encouraging for fans hoping Lanterns becomes an ongoing corner of the DCU rather than a one-and-done mystery. Lindelof didn’t offer any clues about what those future stories might involve, but he did have some fun throwing out actors he’d love to bring aboard.

His wish list includes Regina King, who worked with Lindelof on Watchmen, along with The Leftovers stars Justin Theroux and Carrie Coon. Then there’s another particularly interesting name with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who played Simon Williams in Marvel’s Wonder Man.

"I worked with a great actor, Yahya Abdul Mateen II, who would be great," said Lindelof. "He was already in the old version of the DCU. He played the bad guy in the Aquaman movies."

Abdul-Mateen previously played Black Manta in the Aquaman films, but with the old DCEU finished and the new DCU rewriting the rules, there’s no reason he’d necessarily have to return as the same character.

James Gunn’s DCU has already demonstrated that some performers and characters can carry over while others get completely reinvented, so Abdul-Mateen showing up as somebody new could be a pretty cool move.

Of course, none of this means Season 2 is officially happening. HBO and DC Studios still haven’t renewed Lanterns. According to The Ankler, however, Cantwell has joined Mundy as co-showrunner ahead of a possible second season, which makes all this talk a little more interesting.

It also arrives during a strange moment for the DCU’s television plans. DCU: Chapter One - Gods and Monsters has gone through some major changes, with reports revealing that the planned Waller series and Wonder Woman prequel Paradise Lost have been put on the backburner,. Meanwhile, Booster Gold remains in development despite recent cancellation rumors.

Lanterns, however, appears to have a potentially long road ahead of it, even though Lindelof originally approached the first season as a complete story rather than something designed around a cliffhanger and an automatic renewal.

"We came into this with the sort of attitude that this was a mystery with a beginning, middle, and end. We had a story to tell about characters that we really cared about, and we would want the audience to kind of get to know them over the course of the first season and really invest in them, and then that story ended."

If Season 1 tells a satisfying mystery from beginning to end, future seasons could potentially send its Green Lantern characters into entirely new investigations rather than stretching one storyline far beyond its natural endpoint.

The series follows veteran Green Lantern and intergalactic cop Hal Jordan, played by Kyle Chandler, and his trainee John Stewart, played by Aaron Pierre, as the pair investigate a mysterious murder.

The story unfolds across two timelines, 2016 and 2026, and brings the cosmic mythology of the Green Lantern Corps into a much more grounded detective story.

The cast also includes Kelly Macdonald as a local sheriff, Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro, and Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, continuing the character’s role in the larger DCU.

Lanterns premieres on HBO Max on August 16, so we won’t have to wait much longer to find out whether DC’s Green Lantern detective series connects with audiences. If it does, Lindelof clearly sees plenty of territory left to explore.