Lanterns And The Future Of DCU TV Addressed By DC Studios After Shattering HBO Records

The future of DC Universe TV shows gets a major update.

The DCU’s Chapter 1: “Gods and Monsters” slate is building out James Gunn’s superhero franchise across the big and small screens, as various iconic heroes and villains come to life. As the fall season is about to take viewers to Gotham City in the R-rated Clayface movie, many are still wondering what is in store for the television side of the franchise.

Peter Safran, who serves as co-CEO alongside Gunn at DC Studios, recently spoke with IGN about what the strategy is for DCU TV going forward, including whether or not Lanterns season 2 is something they are considering. To begin with, he confirmed with a simple “no” that a second season has been greenlit. He elaborated that “we’ll see what happens with Lanterns Season Two. 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.”

As far as future projects go on the small screen from DC Studios, Safran added that “we’re obviously in production on Gorilla Grodd right now, we have a number of other properties that we’re really excited about that we’re in development on. The episodic world is always going to be a really important part of our overall slate. It’s a great way to tell stories that need more real estate than a feature film can offer you, and it’s a great way to introduce characters that we then bring into the feature world. And I think that Aaron Pierre and John Stewart are perfect examples of that.” He also teased that “audiences will see him next summer” in the upcoming Man of Tomorrow movie, and how “it’s really important to us in continuing to tell aspects of the story that we’re not telling in the feature film world so there’s more to come.”

The DC Studios co-head was asked what project he thinks will start shooting after The People V. Gorilla Grodd. Safran made it clear that “there are a couple that are vying for that spot, but we haven’t firmly committed to what the next one will be in either film or television. We have a pretty robust slate of animation that’s all going forward right now but, on the live-action side, it’s a little bit TBD.”

One of the big animated TV series that is in the works is the Mister Miracle show, which recently revealed its two leading stars, as Josh Hutcherson and Mackenzie Davis have been tapped to voice Scott Free and Big Barda, respectively. Creature Commandos season 2 is also in production, although HBO Max has not announced a release date for it yet.

Back in January 2023, when Gunn and Safran revealed the upcoming DCU movies and TV shows that are part of the slate, a handful of live-action dramas were announced to be in various stages of development. One of the titles included a Wonder Woman prequel series, Paradise Lost, set prior to Diana Prince’s birth.

A Booster Gold live-action series was also announced, but is currently being redeveloped after Davin Jenkins’ pilot was rejected. As they are searching for a new creative team on the Michael Jon Carter-centric show, Jeremy Carver and Christal Henry were hired to develop Viola Davis’ Waller spinoff for Amanda Waller, which has also been progressing more slowly than expected.

Lanterns season 1 is available for streaming on HBO Max.