Lanterns may have ended with more viewers that it started out with, but its success isn’t the only factor in determining whether it’ll get a second season. In an interview with Collider, DC Studios co-chair Peter Safran said, “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.”
That might sound a little harsh, but it makes sense: Lanterns succeeded because it told a compelling and unique story, and much of its value comes from maintaining that level of quality. If the second season can’t live up to the first, it’ll bring the show’s overall reputation down. And for a studio that is still trying to establish itself and find its identity, that would be a huge blow.
The good news, though, is that co-showrunner Chris Mundy is already hard at work on a follow-up idea. “We’re just in the breaking-story stages,” Mundy said to the Hollywood Reporter in August. “We’re about six weeks into laying out a season, and then we’ll talk to folks about it really soon.”
He, too, acknowledged that the strength of the idea would be the deciding factor. “The question is whether [season two] is a story people are interested in,” he said. “We’ll see. I hope so. If that’s the case, then we’ll get to do another one. We’ll tell it in a slightly different way, so that it feels fresh, with characters you know and care about.”
If the show does get a second season, there will be some shake-ups behind the scenes: while Mundy will return, co-creators Damon Lindelof and Tom King will not. Instead, according to Jeff Sneider, Mundy will reportedly work with Eisner Award-winning comic book writer and Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell.
Safran told Collider that we should hear about whether or not Lanterns will get a second season “before the end of the year.” Hopefully, that news breaks sooner rather than later.
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