The development of a Green Lantern project has seen some black nights over the years, but the bright green light of day is closer than ever. HBO has given a straight-to-series order for Lanterns, an eight-episode television event first announced as part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios roadmap last year.
True Detective: Night Country executive producer/writer Chris Mundy will serve as showrunner, co-writing alongside Damon Lindelof (Watchmen, The Leftovers) and Eisner Award-winning comic scribe Tom King (who’s also getting a “based on” credit for the upcoming Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow film). All three will also serve as executive producers on Lanterns, a crime drama centered on the iconic characters Hal Jordan and John Stewart.
Bringing on Mundy and Lindelof aligns with what Safran and Gunn previously shared about the show. “Our vision is much more True Detective, terrestrial-based investigation story,” Safran said when announcing the series in 2023. Indeed, the logline for Lanterns reads, “The series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”
Taking DC Comics’ power ring-wielding intergalactic police force and planting them in Middle America (True Detective: Lantern Country?) feels like Gunn purposefully doing the exact opposite of what he did with Guardians of the Galaxy. Regardless, Safran and Gunn assured fans in a statement that the “original detective story… is a foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with Superman.”
Lanterns comes to light after numerous failed attempts at the concept. Following the Ryan Reynolds-starring Green Lantern flop of 2011, DC/Warner Bros.’s developed a Green Lanterns Corp. movie with a story by David S. Goyer and Geoff Johns. That fell apart in favor of an HBO series from producer Greg Berlanti, the creative behind The CW’s successful Arrowverse. Seth Grahame-Smith was brought on as showrunner, and Finn Wittrock and Jeremy Irvine were cast in 2021 as Green Lanterns Guy Gardner and lan Scott, respectively. When Gunn and Safran were handed DC Studios, the Berlanti/Grahame-Smith project was shelved in favor of this new direction.
There’s no word yet on who will play Jordan or Stewart, but we’ll get a taste of Green Lantern lore well before Lanterns debuts. Nathan Fillion is set to play Green Lantern Guy Gardner in Gunn’s Superman movie, which is currently filming ahead of a July 11th, 2025 release.