‘Lanterns’ Just Delivered the Proof DC Studios Desperately Needed

DC Studios has spent the past couple of years trying to prove its new streaming era can actually compete with the biggest names on HBO Max, and the results have been mixed at best. After a rocky summer at the box office, the studio badly needed a genuine win somewhere to reassure fans and executives alike that James Gunn’s rebuilt universe was working.

That pressure made the launch of its newest Green Lantern series feel especially high-stakes. The show arrived with plenty of buzz but also a bit of controversy, after a resurfaced 2024 podcast clip of co-creator Damon Lindelof joking that “the green was stupid” when explaining the title drew criticism from both fans and Green Lantern comics writer Grant Morrison.

None of that controversy appears to have dented the show’s launch. ‘Lanterns’ pulled in 9.3 million global viewers and 6.6 million in the U.S. over its first three days on HBO and HBO Max, according to Warner Bros. Discovery, making it the biggest series premiere yet for a DC Studios show, ahead of ‘Peacemaker’ and ‘The Penguin.’

That comparison isn’t even close. ‘The Penguin’ took eleven full days to reach 10.4 million viewers across all platforms after its 2024 debut, while ‘Lanterns’ blew past a comparable audience size in a fraction of that time. The show also landed among the top five series premieres in HBO Max history overall, trailing only the ‘House of the Dragon’ spinoff ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.’

Beyond the impressive viewer numbers, ‘Lanterns’ has also become a genuine critical hit. The series debuted on Rotten Tomatoes at 91%, already ahead of ‘Superman’ and ‘Supergirl,’ before climbing to 95%, making it the highest-rated DC Universe project on the aggregator to date.

‘Lanterns’ pairs Kyle Chandler’s veteran Hal Jordan with Aaron Pierre’s rookie recruit John Stewart in a genre-blending murder mystery set against a cosmic backdrop, investigating a killing in rural Nebraska that pulls them into a much stranger conspiracy. The series comes from co-creators Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, with Mundy serving as showrunner.

That strong early performance has already started shaping the show’s future. Showrunner Chris Mundy has confirmed that a second season is already being mapped out in the writers’ room, even without an official renewal from HBO. Mundy has described being roughly six weeks into breaking the story for Season 2, a clear sign of confidence given the show hasn’t technically been picked up again yet.

For DC Studios, this kind of unambiguous win matters beyond just one show’s success. With Gunn and Safran having previously described ‘Lanterns’ as a “huge HBO-quality event” in the vein of ‘True Detective,’ the series appears to have delivered on that promise both critically and commercially.

With the premiere episode continuing to hold steady on HBO Max’s daily Top 10 list and new episodes still rolling out weekly, ‘Lanterns’ looks positioned to keep building momentum well into the fall. If a Season 2 renewal does come through, this launch will likely be remembered as the moment DC Studios finally proved its streaming strategy could work.