DC fans were shocked on Tuesday as a report from Variety seemed to confirm that Lanterns had been cancelled and would not receive a second season. As that supposed fact began to spread around the internet, it was eventually debunked.
Variety ended up changing the wording of its article from the statement that Lanterns didn’t get renewed to “has yet to be renewed for a second season,” which is where we’ve been this whole time.
Then came word from Chris Cantwell, formerly of Halt and Catch Fire, who came on board for a potential season 2 of Lanterns. His blunt statement on Bluesky read: “Nothing’s cancelled. Calm down.” Finally, WB itself reached out to press to point to that initial article’s wording change about the show’s status.
The Variety article also quotes its insider saying that the show “isn’t quite capturing the zeitgeist.” That does not track for many fans who watched Lanterns, which HBO said was among the top 5 launches for any series on the service and its biggest DC series ever.
Lanterns grew its audience over time, right through its finale. As for the “zeitgeist,” Lanterns was hotly discussed every week by fans, and its stars, Aaron Pierre as John Stewart and Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, were highly praised, particularly Chandler, whose role many believed was the best-cast in the DCU.
However, Lanterns not being cancelled now does not mean a season 2 is coming for sure. With Gunn’s departure, it could be less likely than before, and it wasn’t clear it was going to come together even in his era. Lanterns was getting an almost all-new writing staff for season 2, and there did not appear to be a longer-term plan mapped out for the series from the start.
Additionally, there’s the idea that Jeremy Latcham, the new head of DC Studios taking over for Gunn and Peter Safran, could want to make the universe more family-friendly, and an f-bomb-laden Lanterns season 2 may not be in the cards, though we don’t know that for sure yet.
Then there’s another separate issue of even if Lanterns is cancelled, what happens to its characters? It seems unlikely that Chandler’s Hal Jordan would be resurrected without a second season, as was hinted at the end of season 1. It’s been confirmed that Pierre’s Green Lantern will show up in Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow, out next summer. It seems possible that Pierre will keep the role and show up periodically in other projects (including a future JLA movie), but not in a new season of Lanterns.
The show is undeniably a hit, however. It would seem shortsighted to can it just because it was a Gunn-era project. You could also argue that it is, in fact, focused on a “major” character, Green Lantern, a core JLA member, and would not fall into the collection of more minor characters Gunn frequently focused on. It may be some time before we learn the ultimate fate of Lanterns, but that day is not today.
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This article was originally published on Forbes.com
