UPDATE 10/8: “Not imminent” is now “pending,” per Deadline’s new report, as the finale sets a series viewership record.
UPDATE 10/5: Collider is claiming early development. Lindelof said writers are “ideating” on Season 2, which is the pitch-page work reported here. And Mundy confirms in a new interview: “there’s nothing official.”
UPDATE 10/4: Following the finale, showrunner Chris Mundy lays out his Season 2 plan: John Stewart stays on Earth. Still no order.
Lanterns Season 2 is not close to a greenlight.
The Ankler’s Lesley Goldberg reports a renewal is “not imminent,” per her sources.
That’s the state of play for HBO Max’s highest-rated DC series, a show HBO says has hit new viewership highs every week, with Episode 3 on August 30 reportedly drawing 10 million viewers worldwide.
Five episodes into an eight-episode season, the “biggest” DC show on the platform still has no second season on the books.
HBO Is Waiting on Pitch Pages?
HBO and DC Studios opened a Season 2 writers room ahead of the August 16 premiere.
Chris Cantwell (Halt and Catch Fire) came aboard back in May as co-showrunner alongside Chris Mundy, with Damon Lindelof and Tom King departing after Season 1.
Since July, per the report, Mundy, Cantwell and the writers have been working on pitch pages, and those pages are what would trigger a second season.
The report adds that HBO executives hope to keep the show going. They haven’t ordered anything.
It’s the same picture from our September 1 story: a writers room is not a greenlight, and Lindelof’s own framing was “if it’s successful.”
Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre said it themselves, the cast is at peace either way while the room breaks story without a pickup.
The Order Runs Through Bloys and the Merger
The decision sits with an HBO where Casey Bloys greenlights script by script, and with a Paramount takeover that hands David Ellison sign-off on major DC commitments.
Per CBN’s insiders, a DC Studios boss is on his way out once WBD is sold.
The report also notes the rest of DC’s live-action TV slate is exactly one show: The People v. Gorilla Grodd, formally greenlit August 21 and now shooting.
Episode 5 hits HBO Max September 13, with the finale on October 4.
Those pitch pages are supposedly the trigger. When they land at HBO, the network makes the call on its biggest DC hit. When.
Also in the report: four Spider-Man series scripts are in play at Amazon after the Spider-Noir cancellation.
