'Lanterns' Creator Officially Reveals His Long-Term Plan for HBO's Gritty Sci-Fi Detective Series

Published Sep 20, 2026, 10:01 PM EDT Carly Lane is an Atlanta-based writer and critic who has been with Collider in some form or fashion since 2021. She considers herself a television nerd, diehard romance/sci-fi/fantasy reader, and nascent horror lover. Her fondness of books is only eclipsed by the towering TBR that her shelves can't possibly contain. She is the author of A REGENCY GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE: 1800s ADVICE ON 21ST CENTURY LOVE, FRIENDS, FUN AND MORE, published through DK Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) and currently available wherever books are sold. Sign in to your Collider account Editor's note: The below interview contains minor spoilers for Lanterns Episode 6. As HBO's Lanterns continues to progress toward the finale, the series is confirming even more connections to James Gunn's wider DCU. While the show starts with Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) as Earth's Green Lantern, the situation changes after 2016's investigation in Rushville leads to an explosive showdown between Hal, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), and the Manhunter (Poorna Jagannathan). When John ultimately turns down the chance to wear the ring himself, it opens the door for Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) to become the next Green Lantern — and as Lanterns' latest episode reveals, there's no love lost between the guy who was originally teed up to replace Hal Jordan and the gym teacher who ended up taking the job. Ahead of the Lanterns premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several members of the show's cast and creative team, including co-creator Chris Mundy. Over the course of the interview, which you can watch above or read below, Mundy discusses the process of striking the right balance between the grit of True Detective and more fantastical Green Lantern story components, how Lanterns' version of Guy Gardner goes a step further than the character fans met in Superman, why John's spotlight episode almost aired later in the season, his plan for the show's potential return after Season 1, and more. COLLIDER: In terms of the overall blend of genres with the show, I know there's been some early comparisons to True Detective and things like that, but I was interested in hearing how you wanted to strike the balance between those grittier thriller elements and the more humorous and fantastical elements that almost are more emblematic of the Green Lantern story. CHRIS MUNDY: Yeah, it's a tricky balance. We're trying to hopefully do a good enough job that people accept the mash-up of them. It was weird that things would come in, like, obviously we start with that 60 Minutes interview, so suddenly you're grounding it in Hal, and he’s in the suit, and then you’ve got this weird scene of borderline child abuse, but then Hal and John, and then immediately that car flies off. So, in some ways, we gave everyone everything in the first five minutes, but then after that we really wanted to slow it down and ground ourselves. It's like, “Okay, the mystery is going to be based in this town. We're going to be in Western Nebraska.” We wanted to get to Hal and John's relationship, people feeling like they're living inside of it, and they're living in sort of the dirt and dust of western Nebraska. Once that was the case, then slowly bring in the comic book stuff as you go. So, even the way we did the construct sort of started small and went bigger. The suit comes back again at the end of Episode 2, but each time we wanted to ground in one, and if we felt confident that we had done a good enough job with that, then add the next layer of the thing. This is more of a less serious question, but I was interested in hearing whose idea it was to have “Brand New Key” be the song that Hal purposely picks on the jukebox to start a bar fight. MUNDY: Do you know what’s so funny? It was like we knew we wanted it. We were in three different locations. I was in my office, Damon [Lindelof] was in his office, Tom [King] was in Washington, DC, and we knew we were going to play the gag of the song. I texted the three of them and said, “We should land on a song.” And, like, two seconds later, Damon texted back, “Brand New Key.” And the second you read it, we were like, “Oh yeah, that's exactly what it is.” It's fantastic. Every time it started up again, I had to chuckle to myself. It was great. MUNDY: Yeah, same. I've seen it a million times, and it still makes me laugh. 'Lanterns' Creator Wanted To Take Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner "One Step Further" Than James Gunn's 'Superman' "That character, you can play him for as much comedy or as little as you want." Image via HBO I did have a chance to pick Damon and Tom's brains about bringing Guy Gardner into the story, so I thought you would also be a good person to ask about that. How soon did you know you wanted him to be a part of the show, and what did you really want to emphasize about any difference in the character in Lanterns compared to the version that we meet in Superman? MUNDY: We knew pretty much right away when we were doing the two time periods we wanted to have him in the show at least a little bit, just to explain to the world where we were in time. Hal was gone, and also to explain that we knew the time period. You know what I mean? And from that, we had a lot of license. That character, you can play him for as much comedy or as little as you want. James [Gunn] had obviously played him for comedy in Superman, and we just felt like it was license to take it one step further, especially since it's sort of adversarial the first time when he's talking to John. So, we just sort of went for it and waited to see if we got any notes, and people seemed to like it. And Nathan [Fillion]'s so good that that helps. On the page, they trusted it, in part because I think he's just so good. Given that he is the Green Lantern, at least by the 2026 timeline, obviously it raises the question of, "Well, we know Hal and John are in the show, so what happened in those moments in between?" The premiere ends in a way that I think is going to shock and surprise a lot of viewers — it certainly caught me off-guard. Is there any reassurance that you can offer fans that might be confused, maybe a little bit upset by that particular story choice? Because it is a big one, and the ripple effects carry through the rest of the show. MUNDY: It's a big one. I don't know if there's anything that gives them peace of mind. I will say that it's something we didn't take lightly and that it's something we want to emotionally earn. We did it to deepen our understanding both of John but also of Hal. So, to whatever degree you get peace of mind from it, it's in service of Hal’s character and in service of John's character. Episode 3 is a very character-forward episode in a lot of ways — focusing on John, his backstory, his very complicated relationship with his family, his parents in particular. But given where it appears in the season, it kind of steps away a little bit from the murder mystery that's going on in Rushville. Did it ever feel like a bit of a risk, storytelling-wise, to do a pivot to more of a character spotlight at that point in the show? MUNDY: Originally, when we broke the season, that episode always existed. It was fifth, initially. There was a point where we decided that we felt free to pull it up, that we felt confident in the world we'd created in [Episodes] 1 and 2, and that in a way, it was more important to have a deeper understanding of John, and you learn about Hal in that, too. But we felt like the depth of understanding the characters was more important in the [Episode] 3 spot than making sure the story had momentum. But it was a huge discussion. Like I said, it was originally fifth, and it was a ways in before we pulled it up to [Episode] 3. Chris Mundy Reveals How Many More 'Lanterns' Easter Eggs Are on the Way "You get a hint of him early, and more of him a little bit later, so we felt like that was enough." Image via HBO There are quite a couple of name-drops of other Lanterns in the show. We get a Ch'p reference. The Mogo reference, I think, is going to give fans a bit of a chuckle. Were there conversations about including more explicit cameos, or is there anything maybe cooking for the finale that you can tee up? I'm curious as to whether we're going to see any others. MUNDY: We talked about it, but I don't think there was ever… In retrospect, a lot of times there are things in a writers’ room they talk about that they're like, “Oh, wow,” things that have legs for a long time that you just didn't end up doing, or even things you wrote that just there was too much tonnage of stuff and you pulled. So, we talked about it, but we felt like our story was full enough, and we felt like we just wanted to keep burrowing into John and Hal. And we knew we were using Sinestro in the season, so we knew people that were waiting to really feel those kinds of presences, that that was coming. You get a hint of him early, and more of him a little bit later, so we felt like that was enough. And the other, it wasn't going to serve the drive; it was going to take away from the emotional stuff that we were doing with Hal and John. I'd be remiss if I didn't wrap up by asking about the longer plan for these characters. Obviously, John is going to make an appearance in another DC project, but if there was an opportunity to do more Lanterns, what's the general feeling behind continuing the show? MUNDY: The general feeling is if people are interested, knock on wood, if people like the show, and there seems to be enough interest, we would love to do it. Honestly. I think you want to end in a place where you feel like this was a fall season, but emotionally, there's so much more to keep going with. So, with a little bit of luck, there'll be more. New episodes of Lanterns premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.