Lanterns wrapped up its first season this past Sunday amid mixed reactions - and record-breaking ratings.
According to Nielsen and internal numbers from Warner Bros. Discovery, the finale, "Dirt and Stars," brought in 10.5 million viewers globally and 7.2 million viewers in the U.S. across three days of cross-platform viewing.
With the full season averaging 19.3 million viewers globally, these numbers mark an all-time high both worldwide and in the U.S., cementing the DC Studios superhero show's spot among the top five HBO series launches in platform history.
Lanterns still hasn't been officially renewed for a second season, but a new writing team has been assembled in anticipation of the greenlight. Chris Mundy is expected to return as showrunner, without writers Damon Lindelof and Tom King. Vanessa Baden Kelly will be back, along with new scribes Christopher Cantwell, Nakkiah Lui, Zack Whedon, and Selwyn Seyfu Hinds.
Mundy recently revealed that some ideas for a second season have been discussed, and it sounds like Lanterns will continue to be a primarily Earth-based series.
"It’s like we’ve tossed out a lot of different things. I mean, again, we want to treat it all—you know, we won’t be back in Rushville most likely unless something crazy happens in Rushville, you know, every 10 years. But you’re going to—it’s going to be an Earth-based story that we continue most likely."
"I mean, would you—we’ve shown that you can leave the planet, so that’s good, right?" he added. "But because of that, we want to make whoever’s here as sort of grounded and real as possible. Our idea was just to ground everything and then layer on the other layers." The writer continued, "But it’s just like, okay, are you with us? Great. Now we can expand. And it’s the same thing with introducing all the other Lanterns and stuff."
HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios. The pilot episode 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. The series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, James Gunn, Peter Safran, King, Ron Schmidt, and Hawes. Based on the DC comic characters from Green Lantern.
The series stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
The series follows new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.