Damon Lindelof Swears 'Lanterns' Won't Make Same Mistakes As 'Lost'

Following the critical acclaim for both The Leftovers and Watchmen, Damon Lindelof has a proven track record for delivering outstanding TV shows. That momentum should have carried him breezily into Lanterns, but this is a comic book property we’re talking about, so it’s been one flaming arrow after another.

Heading into Lantern’s thankfully solid premiere, Lindelof was forced to reckon with his time on Lost, which to this day still gets fragged for its final season and failure to answer the show’s ever-stacking mysteries. Here’s the thing though, Lost surprisingly holds up. It’s final season is not the trainwreck it felt like watching it live. Binge watching really smooths things over here. As far as the unsolved mysteries… OK, yeah, those get left dangling. But anyone who knows how TV works — or the history of Lost — shouldn’t need the reassurances that Lindelof offered to apprehensive Green Lantern fans.

Via Polygon:

Lindelof explained that the biggest challenge Lost faced was the network’s desire to keep the hit show going as long as possible.

“We had to aggressively fight for an end date as early as when the show premiered,” Lindelof said. “For a show that had a mystery engine, the audience was saying ‘When are you going to tell us what the f*** is going on here?’ We’re like, ‘We really want to, but once we start answering mysteries, the show is coming down the hill, it’s closer to the end.’”

Does this mean Lanterns won’t have any mysteries? No, of course not. The premiere dropped several big ones right out of the gate: Who killed [BLANK]? Where did his [BLANK] go? Was that really [BLANK]? But like a good graphic novel, Lanterns Season 1 will tell a complete story.

“We’re going to do a mystery, and then, more importantly, we’re going to have a relationship story between these two guys that feels resolved at the end of the story that we’re telling,’” Lindelof said. “We want the audience to be really hungry for more when it ends. I think that it feels like it was a really good meal, but a couple of hours after you’ve consumed it, you’re going to say, ‘I think I want to spend some more time in that world.’”

Based on the chemistry between Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre alone, I’m already hooked. As for the prospect of Season 2, there’s some encouraging news on that front. According to THR, Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy and incoming writer Christopher Cantwell are “provisionally breaking story.” That doesn’t mean the show has been renewed yet, but if it does, it will be in good hands. Cantwell co-created Halt and Catch Fire, and he’s bounced around both Marvel and DC Comics. (His Doctor Doom miniseries is particularly worth checking out.)

Could Lanterns crash and burn between now and the finale? Sure, but Lindelof’s track record deserves the benefit of the doubt. Again, The Leftovers and Watchmen were outstanding, and this really shouldn’t be controversial, but Lost is good. I know Lost gets crowded out by shows like The Sopranos, Mad Men, or Breaking Bad, but there’s a reason people keep going back to the island or diving in for the first time on streaming. It’s one of the greats.