DC’s Green Lantern series tries its hand at HBO as Warner Bros. leaves Max Originals label behind

DC is making progress with its Green Lantern series on HBO and has set the first season at eight episodes.

Currently, DC Studios, co-led by James Gunn, is working on a number of projects, including a Green Lantern television series. We’ve known for some time that the series will be written by acclaimed comic book writer Tom King, along with Damon Lindelof, known for creating a number of popular series such as Lost and Watchmen. As Variety reports, it has now been announced that the series will finally be officially picked up by HBO. It’s worth noting that it was originally planned as a Max Original, but Warner Bros. has changed course to the HBO Originals label and branding, even for the streaming shows.

Also attached to the show as showrunner and executive producer is Chris Mundy, most recently a producer on True Detective: Night Country and former showrunner of Ozark. “We are thrilled to be reuniting with both Chris Mundy and Damon Lindelof, who are collaborating with Tom on this fresh take on DC’s Green Lantern,” said Casey Bloys, CEO of HBO and Max Content, in a statement. “As part of James and Peter (Safran’s) vision for the DC Universe, this first new live-action series will usher in an exciting new era.”

The series follows both Hal Jordan, the original Green Lantern, and John Stewart, the Lantern you probably remember from your childhood on the Justice League animated series. Both are members of the Green Lantern Corps. The logline states: “Two intergalactic cops are drawn into a dark, earth-level mystery while investigating a murder in the heartland of America.”

Gunn and Safran also released a joint statement, saying, “We are thrilled to bring this groundbreaking DC title to HBO with Chris, Damon and Tom at the helm. John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is a fundamental part of the unified DCU we launch next summer with Superman.”

As mentioned there, the new DCU kicks off with Superman next year, and the first look at David Corenswet’s Superman was shown last month – just ignore the silly scenario the picture sets up.