Some Bad News About ‘Lanterns’ Season 2’s Release Date

‘Lanterns’ season 2 does not seem to have been mapped out at all yet, which does not bode well for its upcoming release date.

HBO Max

We don’t really need to pretend that Lanterns season 2 isn’t happening, despite no official word from HBO Max yet. The writers’ room has been in motion for a while, and the creators are already talking about it openly. But one of those creators has said something somewhat unsettling that does not bode well for when we might see Lanterns actually return, with a likely very far-off season 2 release date.

Obviously, this is the streaming industry we’re talking about, and long gaps between seasons are not unexpected, but this goes a bit further than that. Here’s Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy on the Ringer-Verse podcast when asked the main question of whether season 2 will resurrect Hal Jordan or not:

“I have absolutely no idea…there’s a million what ifs…the good thing about fiction…it wasn’t like ‘we’ve got a great idea for S2 and 3, so let’s layer in’…you take a look at what you made.. then you go from there.”

It is somewhat unsettling that, heading into season 2, which features an almost entirely new writing staff, even if Mundy is still showrunner, that season 2 was not planned out ahead of time, at least not answering major questions like “Is Hal Jordan coming back?” which is a key plot point. The key plot point, many would argue, as Kyle Chandler is already considered one of the best-cast actors in the DCU, if not the best. And nothing was decided about whether he would be brought back heading into season 2? The show was always meant to have more seasons, so it’s not like season 2 was some unexpected surprise where they didn’t think they’d have to answer this question.

This, and the overall idea that they’re close to starting from scratch on new storylines (he teases that maybe they’ll do Kilowog), would indicate that we are further away from release than we would have previously guessed.