DC's Green Lantern Series ‘Lanterns' Picked Up as HBO Series for Eight Episodes

The Green Lanterns' light is officially ready to shine again.

HBO has officially picked up "Lanterns," the first live-action series created expressly for DC Studios under co-chairmen/co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran. The series has been given an eight-episode, straight-to-series order by HBO, with Chris Mundy ("True Detective: Night Country," "Ozark") serving as showrunner and exec producer.

Also on board: Damon Lindelof ("Watchmen," "The Leftovers") and Tom King ("Mister Miracle," "Supergirl"), who will serve as executive producers and co-write "Lanterns" with Mundy. Warner Bros. TV is producing with DC Studios and HBO; the show is based on the DC comic "Green Lantern."

The series will follow Hal Jordan and John Stewart, two members of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic team charged with defending a specific realm of the cosmos from evil through the use of rings that bestow an array of superhuman powers. Per the logline, new recruit Stewart and Lantern legend Jordan are "two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland."

Jordan, a test pilot in the comic books, was first portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the 2011 "Green Lantern" movie; Stewart, a military veteran, is among DC's first Black superheroes. Nathan Fillion will play a different Green Lantern member, Guy Gardner, in Gunn's feature "Superman," which will premiere in July 2025.

"We are elated to be reuniting with both Chris Mundy and Damon Lindelof as they partner with Tom for this fresh take on DC's ‘Green Lantern,'" said Casey Bloys, chairman/CEO of HBO and Max Content. "As part of James and Peter's vision for the DC Universe, this first new live action series will mark an exciting new era."

"Lanterns" would have originally been labeled a Max Original, under the previous plan to place all Warner Bros.-originated I.P. under the Max label. But under a new delineation revealed by Bloys to Variety, major projects like "Lanterns" will now fall under the HBO Originals brand.

Gunn and Safran first announced their intention to make a "Green Lantern" series in Jan. 2023, when they presented their inaugural slate of titles for film and TV; at the time, Safran called the project "a huge HBO-quality event" that is "very much in the vein of ‘True Detective.'" (It took the place of a separate "Green Lantern" series that had been in development with Berlanti Productions.) The first DC series, the animated "Creature Commandos," is expected to debut in late 2024, followed by Season 2 of "Peacemaker," which Gunn created prior to taking the helm at DC Studios.

"We're thrilled to bring this seminal DC title to HBO with Chris, Damon and Tom at the helm," Gunn and Safran said in a joint statement. "John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC's most compelling characters, and ‘Lanterns' brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU we're launching next summer with ‘Superman.'"

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