Lanterns Co-Showrunner Reacts To DC Studios Shakeup Amid Season 2 Uncertainty

"Lanterns" co-showrunner Chris Mundy has offered his take on the shocking reshuffle at DC Studios while there are still questions over a potential second season of the HBO show. Co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran confirmed they were stepping down from their roles in a statement posted to Instagram, with Gunn saying he disliked the "at-times corporate nature of the job."

Many have already wondered whether "Lanterns" Season 2 was on the cards or not, and Mundy touched on it when speaking to The Playlist, also noting Skydance's recent purchase of Warner Bros. "We thought everything had settled [after the merger]," he explained. "I can imagine a world where everyone retreats to their corners, but then, you know, it's a coin flip, 50/50." Mundy's comments don't sound overly positive about the possibility of more ring-slinging action for the Green Lantern Corps on HBO.

"Lanterns" Season 1 ends as John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) finally gets a ring and a power-battery of his own. But he specifically becomes Earth's protector and leaves the rest of the cosmic Sector 2814 in the safe(ish) hands of Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion). It's a way of positioning Stewart into a powerful new place ahead of his role in Gunn's 2027 "Superman" follow-up, "Man of Tomorrow."

"Lanterns" was incredibly successful on HBO, with over 10 million viewers tuning in for the finale in October. So it's only natural that audiences want to know if Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler will return for a new mystery adventure on HBO in the future. But a second season was unclear even before the DC Studios reshuffle, and there was already one major condition for its return: The story had to be worth it.

Peter Safran said that was the single deciding factor for the show's future, telling Collider, "If we're able to come up with what we believe to be a worthy successor to a beloved and great first season, that's what's going to dictate whether there's a second season." It's a valid point, since there are plenty of TV shows that should have just ended after one season.

But it seems like the entire creative team shares the same perspective, as co-creator Damon Lindelof told The Daily Beast, "Nobody wants to do it just because the first season was successful. That is to say, everyone's approaching it with the point of view of, should there be a second season? Is the creative worthy of a second season?" For now, "Lanterns" Season 2 seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened. The more pressing issue is whether Skydance chooses to hit reboot on the DC Universe entirely after Safran and James Gunn's exit. Only time will tell.