The DCU's Best Release Hands Down Faces An Uncertain Future

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The Lanterns main characters around a giant dish.

Published Nov 12, 2026, 7:30 AM EST

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

Although the DCU’s best release was a huge critical success, James Gunn’s exit from the franchise does leave the show’s future in question. It’s not always easy to get viewers excited about a new superhero show in 2026. Eight years after HBO’s Titans reinvented Batman on the small screen with a gritty, R-rated take on Teen Titans, it can sometimes feel like every avenue has already been explored in the genre.

There are superhero shows for children, light-hearted escapist superhero shows, darkly comedic subversive satires of superhero shows, brutally violent TV-MA takes on superheroes, animated superhero shows, and so many more variations on this theme. Even The Boys correctly predicting real-life events, as well as offering viewers a lot of massive laughs and unforgettable characters, was not enough to stop some viewers and reviewers tiring of the Prime Video show before its series finale.

As such, the fact that one DCU show managed to get viewers legitimately excited about the small-screen future of the franchise was cause for celebration. Sold as a blend between True Detective and The Green Lantern, HBO’s Lanterns followed Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart as the pair looked into a murder that soon became a sprawling, dark conspiracy with interplanetary implications. With a 92% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this mature take on the Green Lantern franchise was a massive critical success.

Lanterns Season 2 Is In Doubt After The DCU's Latest Reset

Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan in Lanterns-1

However, the news that the DCU’s head honcho, James Gunn, and his producing partner Peter Safran are no longer running DC Studios now leaves the fate of the franchise in question. The news has confused plenty of commentators, not least because it is arguably too early to make any meaningful judgments on the impact of Safran and Gunn’s leadership on the DCU.

While summer’s Supergirl was a box office letdown, October’s Clayface over performed with audiences. Meanwhile, DC’s spin on True Detective was an unambiguous success, and Lanterns was one of few recent superhero shows to be lauded for its consistent invention and originality. That said, this alone isn't a guarantee of longevity in the industry, especially in an era when superhero fatigue is an increasingly real concern.

With a stellar supporting cast including Gunn’s longtime collaborator Nathan Fillion, Kelly Macdonald, and Poorna Jagannathan, Lanterns doesn’t lack star power. Meanwhile, the HBO show’s thrilling season 1 conclusion managed the tricky task of leaving the door open for a follow-up while also feeling cohesive and complete in its own right, functioning as both a standalone story and an advertisement for the DCU’s small screen potential.

Why Lanterns Season 2 Needs To Happen

John Stewart wearing a black shirt and black jacket

That said, one need only look at Prime Video’s surprise cancellation of Spider-Noir to see that no amount of streaming success, critical acclaim, or fan love can save even an extremely high-profile superhero show from the looming axe of cancellation. Thus, it is unclear whether Lanterns season 2 will happen at all right now, and this is particularly unfortunate after the show’s first season set the series up for success.

Unlike its most obvious inspiration, True Detective, Lanterns will not need to start afresh with new main characters in its next season. In fact, Pierre’s Stewart only just got a chance to emerge as the show’s true hero near the end of Lanterns season 1, and the Rebel Ridge star’s potential as a leading man alone is enough reason to continue the DCU series.

Unfortunately, as the dust is still settling on Gunn’s shock exit, it is not yet clear whether the top brass at HBO and DC Studios see it this way. As such, the future of HBO and the DCU’s Lanterns remains unknown for the time being, and viewers can only hope the show will continue into a sophomore season.