'Lanterns' Season 2 Just Got an Update and It's Not Great

Lanterns put up some solid numbers and received rave reviews thanks to its stellar casting of Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre as Hal Jordan and his trainee John Stewart, respectively. The show freaking slapped.

Part of what made Lanterns so great is that it told a complete story, but that doesn’t mean fans wouldn’t mind more of this world. Since last week’s finale, the silence on a Season 2 renewal has been deafening. Well, DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran finally put all the cards on the table for the fate of Lanterns. It’s not the worst news, but it’s not very encouraging either.

Via IGN:

Listen, we’ll see what happens with Lanterns Season 2. If, I think, the collective group of HBO and DC and Chris Mundy and the team all feel like we’ve got something that is a worthy successor to quite a beloved first season of television, then I wouldn’t be surprised to see more.

IGN: But Lanterns Season 2 is not greenlit?

Peter Safran: No.

So, there you have it. Keeping with DC Studios “script first” approach, if the creative team, which reportedly includes comics and Halt and Catch Fire writer Christopher Cantwell, doesn’t crack a good enough story for Season 2, it ain’t happening. To put even more of a point on it, Safran told Collider that a decision would be made “before the end of the year.”

I’m going to be real: This update doesn’t fill me with confidence. Lanterns Season 1 did tell an awesome story from start to finish, and now John Stewart is off to the movies where he’ll appear in Man of Tomorrow. While there are ways to bring Hal Jordan back from the dead, he is neatly out of the picture, so I can very easily see DC Studios taking a much-needed win and not ruining it by going back to the well.

They launched their new Green Lantern, paid incredible respect to an iconic character with brilliant casting, and now it’s on to the future. — But I would not say no to more Kyle Chandler, and I’m sure someone at DC Headquarters is jotting that down. “The Meghan McCain guy says more KC” carries a lot of weight.