Photo via Just JaredHBO has not renewed or cancelled the DC series ahead of Sunday's finale, even as a writers' room reportedly works on a second season already.
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Lanterns wraps its first season Sunday night and HBO still hasn't said what happens next.
The DC Studios series, starring Aaron Pierre as John Stewart and Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, airs its eighth and final episode of Season 1 on October 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, simulcast on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. As of October 3, the network has neither renewed nor cancelled the show. No statement, no press release, nothing official either way.
That silence hasn't stopped the signals from piling up.
Showrunner Chris Mundy told The Hollywood Reporter his team is roughly six weeks into mapping out a potential second season. "We're about six weeks into laying out a season, and then we'll talk to folks about it really soon," he said. That's a showrunner talking like there's a show to talk about, even if the paperwork hasn't caught up.
A report from October 1 went further, naming the writers apparently already in the room with Mundy: Christopher Cantwell, Nakkiah Lui, Zack Whedon, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds and Vanessa Baden Kelly. Five names is a real writers' room, not a wish list. But development work isn't a green light. HBO hasn't ordered anything, and a show can spend months in the writing stage before a network commits a dime to shooting it.
Then there's James Gunn doing the thing James Gunn does on Threads. When a fan asked him to confirm that the upcoming episode was a season finale and not a series finale, the DC Studios co-CEO replied with two words: "Season finale, correct." It's not a renewal announcement. It reads like one anyway.
The numbers back up why everyone's assuming this gets picked up. Warner Bros. Discovery said the premiere pulled in 9.3 million global viewers across HBO and HBO Max in its first three days, 6.6 million of those in the US, good enough to rank among HBO Max's five biggest series launches. Episode 3 then climbed to 10 million global viewers and 7 million in the US over its opening three days, per TheWrap, a series high at the time. Those are the kind of numbers that usually get a show a second year. HBO just hasn't said so out loud.
Whatever happens to the series, John Stewart isn't going anywhere. Pierre is already locked in to play the character again in Man of Tomorrow, folding Lanterns' lead into the wider DCU regardless of whether HBO orders more episodes of this particular show.
So the finale airs Sunday with every indicator pointing toward a yes and zero official confirmation attached to it. HBO's decision, whenever it lands, is the only thing left to actually report.
This article was written by the CutMirchi desk from the reporting above. Facts are attributed to their original publishers.
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