--- title: "Lanterns co-showrunner Chris Cantwell tells fans “Calm down” as HBO’s Green Lantern show is not canceled" url: https://badiyaa.com/lanterns-chris-cantwell-not-canceled/ published: 2026-11-12T12:37:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-12T12:37:00+00:00 section: Entertainment publisher: Badiyaa --- # Lanterns co-showrunner Chris Cantwell tells fans “Calm down” as HBO’s Green Lantern show is not canceled Lanterns co-showrunner Chris Cantwell says the HBO Green Lantern series is not canceled, telling fans on Bluesky to calm down while season two awaits word. “Nothing’s cancelled. Calm down.” Five words from Lanterns co-showrunner Chris Cantwell on Bluesky were enough to cool a wave of panic over HBO’s Green Lantern series on Tuesday night, November 10. Cantwell, who was hired in May 2026 to help run a possible second season alongside showrunner Chris Mundy, posted the line at about 10:37 p.m. Eastern time as a reply to his own thread. About two hours earlier he had opened that thread with a blunt “Dear Internet,” followed by a saltier line making clear he had heard nothing at all about the show being dropped. When Badiyaa checked the post, it showed 190 likes and 23 reposts. ## Where the cancellation talk came from The rumor took off after a trade report on November 10 said Lanterns had not been renewed, which many fans read as a cancellation. According to reports, that wording was later changed to say the show has yet to be renewed. HBO has not announced either a renewal or a cancellation. The timing made fans nervous. A day earlier, James Gunn and Peter Safran, the co-heads who launched the new DC Universe, were confirmed to be leaving DC Studios, with former Marvel executive Jeremy Latcham taking over on December 1. Badiyaa covered [Gunn and Safran’s exit and Latcham’s arrival at DC Studios](https://badiyaa.com/james-gunn-safran-dc-studios-latcham/) as it happened. The shake-up follows Paramount Skydance’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, the same deal behind the [planned HBO Max and Paramount+ bundle for 2027](https://badiyaa.com/hbo-max-paramount-plus-bundle-2027/). Mundy has been more cautious than Cantwell. After the leadership change, he said he had been surprised by it and put the show’s chances of renewal at “50/50.” ## The case for a second season, in numbers On paper, Lanterns is one of HBO’s strongest recent launches. Here is how its first season performed, by the figures HBO and its partners have shared: - Premiere: 9.3 million viewers worldwide in three days, 6.6 million of them in the United States, the biggest premiere yet for a DC Studios series on HBO Max. - Season average: 19.3 million global viewers per episode. - Finale on October 4: 10.5 million global viewers in three days, 13% more than the premiere’s opening window. - Reviews: 92% positive from 168 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a Metacritic score of 72. Put another way, the finale’s three-day audience was about 1.13 times the premiere’s, a sign that viewers stayed and more arrived. Few dramas grow between their first and last episodes. ## What Lanterns is, for anyone catching up Created by Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King, the eight-episode series is a detective story in the style of True Detective. Kyle Chandler plays veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre plays his recruit John Stewart, who investigate murders in Rushville, Nebraska, across two timelines, 2016 and 2026. Kelly Macdonald co-stars as the town’s sheriff, Kerry Kane, and Nathan Fillion returns as Guy Gardner from the 2025 film Superman. A writers’ room for season two had been working for around six weeks by August, before the show premiered, while HBO waited to see how audiences responded. Cantwell’s posts suggest that work has not been stopped. Lindelof and King did not return as writers because of other projects, though King stayed involved in some capacity. For now the official status is unchanged: no renewal, no cancellation. All eight episodes of the first season are streaming on HBO Max, and Latcham formally takes charge at DC Studios on December 1. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Lanterns (TV series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterns_(TV_series)) *Image: Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*