Stranger Things Season 5 will premiere three whole years after Season 4, which isn’t all that unusual given the slower pace of development in the streaming age. It takes a lot for a series to be delayed to the point that fans become concerned enough to start tossing the term “development hell” around, but one DC show managed it.
In the five years since this troubled superhero series was announced, its parent company launched a streaming service, merged with another company, and completely changed its strategy. No one would have been shocked if it was canceled, but despite all odds, the series is now officially confirmed.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lanterns is officially a go at HBO. The series, based on the Green Lantern comics, will be a True-Detective-esque mystery featuring Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart, which is a far cry from what was announced. Back in 2019, Greg Berlanti, the mastermind of the Arrowverse on the CW, announced two new DC Universe projects. One, the anthology show Strange Adventures, was scrapped in 2022. But the other, an untitled Green Lantern series, seemed like it had legs.
In the years following its announcement, it seemed like the show was shaping up. Scripts were written, a decades-spanning anthological story was teased, and we even got some casting announcements. But, in a sudden change completely separate from the DC Universe overhaul that brought on James Gunn, the series was redeveloped, and a season’s worth of scripts were scrapped.
In early 2023, that redevelopment was announced as the True-Detective-esque story, and just last month, the final pieces fell into place. Lost and Watchmen’s Damon Lindelof and Ozark and True Detective: Night Country’s Chris Mundy were announced as writers.
The journey of Lanterns is a microcosm for superhero media. It began with a mid-budget series tied to a larger universe, the definitive trend of DC in the late 2010s. Then it morphed into a streaming-friendly anthology series, almost like a Green-Lantern-focused Black Mirror. Now it’s what every superhero show is trying to be: a big-budget miniseries with high-profile talent attached.
We’ll have to wait even longer to see if those changes pan out. But if nothing else, Lanterns is proof that what seems like development hell can sometimes just be development purgatory. At a time when shows and movies are getting prematurely canceled left and right, that’s a welcome change.
