LANTERNS Showrunner Confirms Season 2 Will Stay "Grounded" and Set on Earth

If you were expecting Lanterns Season 2 to leave Earth behind and finally unleash the full cosmic insanity of Green Lantern mythology, you may want to adjust those expectations.

The HBO series hasn’t officially been renewed for a second season, although reports suggest it’s happening and ideas are already being discussed. Showrunner Chris Mundy has revealed that if the series returns, the plan is to keep the story primarily on Earth rather than launch John Stewart into a massive space adventure.

That tracks with what Lanterns has been from the beginning. DC Studios introduced the project as a True Detective-style take on Green Lantern, leaning into mystery, character, and a grounded crime story instead of turning the series into a parade of aliens, constructs, and intergalactic battles.

Across its eight episodes, the show kept the traditional Green Lantern spectacle on a pretty tight leash. Constructs and costumed action were limited, while its trips beyond Earth amounted to brief sequences involving an intergalactic prison and a barren planet. Sinestro, with his pink skin, was about as alien as things got visually, while even the Manhunters appeared human.

There had been speculation that this approach was meant to ease audiences into the mythology before Season 2 opened the cosmic floodgates. According to Mundy, though, that apparently isn’t where the series is headed.

The show has certainly introduced material that could lead somewhere much bigger, including possibilities surrounding the Sinestro Corps. Mundy cautioned against assuming the season finale was intentionally planting seeds for specific future storylines, however.

While Lanterns wasn’t conceived as a limited series, the creative team was focused on making the first season work rather than turning every moment into a tease for Seasons 2 and 3.

"We didn’t write toward platforming for our Season 2," Mundy revealed. "We always wrote assuming there would be a Season 2, you know what I mean? We didn’t think of it as a limited series. We thought of it as this is a show that’s going to keep going on, but we were just trying by the skin of our teeth to finish this season."

He continued: "It wasn’t like, 'Oh, we’ve got a great idea for two and three, so let’s layer in.' Some of it is just, you take a look at what you made and what’s interesting to you and what’s useful and then you go from there, and hopefully you created characters that you could do different things with and put them in different situations."

That makes the future of the series interesting because John Stewart is now positioned as Earth’s Green Lantern, and he’s expected to suit up in next summer’s Man of Tomorrow. Based on Mundy’s comments, though, his next solo TV adventure would bring him right back to Earth.

The Lanterns finale also reinforced that direction through John’s conversation with Guy Gardner. Sinestro’s story appears to have reached its conclusion, while the series has moved away from emotions being an essential part of what powers a Lantern.

That could be disappointing news for some fans hoping Season 2 would dive headfirst into concepts such as Parallax, the Sinestro Corps, The Spectre, and the stranger corners of Green Lantern lore. The finale, “Dirt and Stars,” already avoided several of the big comic book developments some fans expected to see.

Of course, none of this means those elements can’t eventually enter the picture. Mundy makes it clear that the writers aren’t working from some rigid multi-season roadmap. They’ll look at where the characters ended up, decide what interests them, and build the next story from there.

Still, it sounds like Lanterns intends to stick with the grounded identity it established in Season 1, which I’m fine with! I thought Season 1 was great! Anyone waiting for John Stewart to start flying across the galaxy and trading ring-powered punches with armies of aliens may have to wait a little longer. But, you may get to see a little of that in Man of Tomorrow.

Would you rather see Lanterns Season 2 remain an Earth-based mystery, or should DC finally let John Stewart loose in the cosmic side of the DCU?