Even though it sometimes feels as if it may never actually come to fruition, DC’s long-gestating superhero saga Lanterns is indeed still in the works, and may actually now be back on track in a big way. Just over a year after the entire Green Lantern project was overhauled from top to bottom, the mystery-driven series has reportedly landed a new creative team leader at last, and I’m going to be very pumped if and when this info gets confirmed.
According to a new report from the DCEUleaks page on Reddit, Lanterns has filled its showrunner role with the talented Chris Mundy, who most recently served as showrunner, writer and executive producer for Netflix’s award-winning crime drama Ozark, which served as the breakout project for Emmy winner Julie Garner. While Mundy doesn’t have any kind of career path that has crossed with superhero fare in past years, this could be a match made in suspense-filled heaven.
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The current iteration of the Green Lantern-focused narrative, as we reported was revealed by James Gunn, will center on Hal Jordan and John Stewart watching over the Earth and getting invested in a “terrestrial-based mystery,” as he put it. The TV show namechecked at the time was HBO’s occult-esque hit True Detective, and while Chris Mundy wasn’t part of that particular creative team at any point, I think his resume is a solid match for where Gunn and Peter Safran are taking things.
With an early career path writing and producing for shows such as Chicago Hope and Cold Case, Mundy landed a lengthier gig as a writer/co-executive producer through the first five hugely popular seasons of CBS’ Criminal Minds. From there, he co-created the 2011 spinoff Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, which starred actors also known for superhero gigs: Forest Whitaker (Black Panther), Matt Ryan (Constantine), Michael Kelly (Man of Steel), Beau Garrett (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) and Janeane Garofalo (Mystery Men).
After that, Mundy teamed up with AMC for writing and executive producer duties on the dramas Hell on Wheels and Low Winter Sun, which he created for American TV based on the UK miniseries of the same name. A couple of years later, he joined Season 2 of Netflix’s acclaimed dark drama Bloodline, and then found some of the biggest success of his career as a creative force alongside Jason Bateman for the streaming hit Ozark, which was created by Bill Dubuque.
By all means, this is a huge gig for Chris Mundy, as Lanterns is part of the DCU’s Chapter 1, Gods and Monsters, along with Gunn’s Superman: Legacy, which will introduce Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern Guy Gardner. It and the Batman-following Penguin standalone series are as highly anticipated as any DC TV shows on the way, not to mention the upcoming DC movies. So the pressure is definitely on, but I think coming from such a heavy crime drama background will definitely help Lanterns stand out from other superhero-driven projects on the horizon.
Also worth noting in the rumor report is a shift in ages for its two main characters. While Hal and John were initially set to be around the same age, it’s said that John will now be in his 20s, while Hal will be older.
While we're not yet sure when Lanterns will be available to stream with a Max subscription, but stay tuned for more updates, with Mundy's confirmed involvement hopefully in the mix.
