James Gunn confirms Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy for Green Lanterns TV show

DC fans of Green Lantern can breathe a huge sigh of relief.

When James Gunn announced a Green Lanterns TV series was part of his 10-project vision for the next chapter of DC screen adventures, there was bound to be some trepidation.

The Lantern enthusiasts have been burnt before. Remember the 2011 Ryan Reynolds movie? He’d rather wish you didn’t. At least Reynolds met Blake Lively while working on the production so at least one good thing came out of it.

The good news is Gunn confirmed on Instagram he has recruited Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy as writers for the upcoming new series.

TV aficionados will know Lindelof well. He is perhaps best known for co-creating Lost with J.J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber but any resentment they might have towards Lindelof for the mystery box show’s ending has well and truly dissipated with his follow-up projects, The Leftovers and Watchmen.

The Leftovers, a story about the aftermath of an event in 2 per cent of the world’s population mysteriously disappears, is considered a pillar of American TV in the 21st century. The third and final season was filmed in Melbourne.

Lindelof has a stacked resume in the genre space, which also includes the screenplay for Cowboys & Aliens, Prometheus, World War Z, Star Trek Into the Darkness and Tomorrowland.

But perhaps the most instructive example for Green Lanterns will be Lindelof’s 2019 HBO adaptation of Watchmen.

Ambitious and morally complex, Watchmen was based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ 1980s comic books, and it used the framework of a superhero story to craft a scorching tale about racism and vigilante justice in 21st century America. It was also, stealthily, a burning love story.

Watchmen won four Emmys – limited series, actress for Regina King, supporting actor for Yayha Abdul-Mateen and writing for Lindelof and Cord Jefferson.

Munday comes more from a crime drama background to Lindelof’s sci-fi bent, and has worked on the likes of True Detective, Ozark, Bloodline, Criminal Minds and Cold Case.

The pairing of Lindelof and Mundy makes sense when you consider DC Studios’ co-head Peter Safran in February 2023 described the Lanterns series as being a “huge HBO quality event very much in the vein of True Detective”.

The series will focus on two different characters that are part of the Green Lantern corps in the comics: Hal Jordan (the character Reynolds played in the 2011 film) and John Stewart.

The Green Lantern corps are an intergalactic police force. The series will involve Hal and John solving a crime which will tie into the larger DC screen universe. No casting has been announced yet.

The first project under Gunn’s tenure will be the David Corenswet-starring Superman reboot in mid-2025, which is currently filming.

Gunn and Safran took over DC’s screen output in late-2022 after the studio had been beleaguered by a mish-mash of releases that often underperformed at the box office and were frequently critically derided.

The Gunn-controlled DC universe will not include the upcoming Joker and Batman sequels from Todd Phillips and Matt Reeves respectively.