We’re not even halfway through the first season of Lanterns , the grounded take on the cosmic superhero airing on HBO Max, but talk about season 2 has already begun. Now, we even have enough information to calculate the potential release date for Lanterns season 2. And it’s not great news.

It seems like it’s going to be full steam ahead for season 2 of Lanterns , given the enormous viewership it has put up on HBO Max. The show racked up 9.3 million views in its first three days, one of the highest first-season totals in HBO Max history. The show was not designed as a miniseries, and it’s already been confirmed that John Stewart will have a role in next year’s Man of Tomorrow alongside Clark, Kara, the Justice Gang and Blue Beetle, among others.

But if we are getting a season 2 of Lanterns , when might that arrive? According to a recent interview with Screenrant , Lanterns co-creator Damon Lindelof said that the writers’ room for season 2 had started under Lanterns showrunner and writer Chris Mundy. A writers’ room for a new season does not guarantee renewal, but in this case, season 2 is likely on the way, given the show’s performance..

  • Using the writers’ room start as a reference, we can do some math. The writers’ room for Lanterns season 1 began in April 2024, which was publicly confirmed by James Gunn in May 2024.
  • Lanterns premiered in August 2026, so that is a 2-year, 4-month gap between the writers’ room start and episode 1 of season 1.
  • While it is very good news that the writers’ room for season 2 is starting this early, before the halfway point of this season, if those numbers hold (and there’s plenty going on in the DCU in the next two years), that would be December 2028. The DCU doesn’t even have confirmed dates for any projects past Man of Tomorrow on July 9, 2027.

We cannot compare this to many other DC projects like The Penguin or Lindelof’s Watchmen because neither had second seasons. Peacemaker had an absolutely absurd 3.5-year break between its seasons. But even a nearly 2.5-year gap between seasons is on the long end of wait times, even in this somewhat exhausting streaming era full of sprawling breaks. Even if this is shaved down to two years, that’s still August 2028.

We have little information about other TV projects that the DCU has planned. We know that the animated Creature Commandos was greenlit for season 2, where DCU head James Gunn wrote every episode. It seems like he may not have time for that now. Gunn replied with a cryptic emoji when asked about a potential Peacemaker season 3. The only very much confirmed project is the upcomin g The People v. Gorilla Grodd show, a mockumentary starring Jimmy Olsen and a giant gorilla. It does not have a release date yet, but it’s tangibly coming together with recent casting announcements.

Hopefully we can get more Lanterns in less than two years, but history has shown us that may be extremely unlikely.

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