Lanterns Has a Season 2 Writers Room but No Renewal, and Its Six Chairs Reveal HBO's Plan

Six names dropped yesterday: five writers and a showrunner, one room for a second season of Lanterns. HBO has six people staffed to write a season it hasn't ordered yet, and the first thing everybody did was look for the name that isn't there: Tom King.

A reader told me he thinks we're probably past the writers at this point. You might be. HBO isn't. That's not a rumor. That's a hiring decision. "And a hiring decision is arguably the most honest thing a studio ever tells you." I hired a writers room once, and Lanterns just showed me its plan. The finale is on Sunday, and the season 2 room is already working.

A correction: the Lanterns hologram says "Great arm, kid," and that changes Sunday

First, I owe readers one. More than 700 of you pointed out that I got the last scene wrong, and you're right. It's the hologram. John punches Sinestro, Hal flickers back in, and Hal says, "Great arm, kid." I live with ADHD, and when I'm fired up, facts can get jumbled. I saw that episode twice and the wrong name still stuck. That's my excuse, and that's just how things happen. And I got it wrong. Last Friday, 1,300 of you told me I was wrong about the bubble and I didn't move an inch. This week, you're right, so I'm moving.

Here's the thing: your version is actually better than mine. Martin Jordan says "great arm, kid" to Hal at the airfield a couple of months before he's gone. Then Hal, the version of Hal that can't lie, says the same words to John. It's the father's line handed down, from Martin to Hal to John, the son Hal never had. That means Sunday isn't Sinestro recruiting John with a dead man's words. Sinestro doesn't get the line. Hal kept it for John.

HBO has staffed a Lanterns season 2 room without renewing the show

Let's be exact, because this week the internet wasn't. According to the report that broke yesterday, the room sits under showrunner Chris Mundy, with Christopher Cantwell, Zack Whedon, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, Nakkiah Lui and Vanessa Baden Kelly. Five writers, one showrunner, six chairs.

Here's the part that got lost in the shuffle. Season 2 is not ordered. HBO has not renewed this show, not as of today. What exists is a room writing scripts and pages so that, the day HBO says yes, nobody is starting from zero. James Gunn was asked online whether Sunday is the season finale, and he confirmed it is. A lot of people heard a renewal. That's a man confirming a word; the last season had a season finale too. And the other side of the internet heard an HBO executive talk about DC's active development and decided season 2 is dead. He didn't say a word about a second season of Lanterns.

Here's how you actually read it, and I'll tell you from the chair. You don't pay writers for a season you've decided against. A staffed room with no order is a studio buying itself an option. It tells you HBO wants a yes ready to go. It does not tell you HBO said yes.

Tom King is not in the room, but nobody has reported he was pushed out

Here's everything that's actually on the record about Tom King. He is a co-creator of this show with Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy. He's an executive producer. He was in the season one room, he co-wrote the pilot, and he's not in the season 2 room. That has been reported more than once, since August, I believe. The reason given is Mister Miracle. He's running that show for DC Studios, and by his own account, he's writing every episode.

One of those reports carries three words nobody repeated this week: he remains involved. Nobody has reported he was fired. Nobody has reported he quit. And he didn't walk away from DC. I looked for a source on every one of those claims and found not one.

Here's the one I want you sitting with on Sunday. The finale is written by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King. Sunday night is King's last word on this season. Whatever this season is, when the credits roll, he signed it. Lindelof is out too. By the reports, he signed on for one season, he's on another HBO show, and he has said season one was built as a complete story. So two of the three people who built this show from scratch aren't in the room that builds the next one.

Losing King and Lindelof means losing the box and the wound

Why do we care? Because those two are not interchangeable writers. Each one brought something very specific. Did Tom King arrive at suicide because he was writing Hal Jordan? Or did Hal Jordan arrive at suicide because Tom King was writing him? That's the right question, and I think it's the question this room answers by leaving it.

Tom King writes men who are broken in a very specific way, and you can trace it across his books. Lindelof builds boxes you can't stop opening. Put those two together and you get exactly the season we just saw: a mystery about a dead man, and the dead man is the most damaged person in the show. Take both of them out and the box and the wound walk out with them. So what did they hire instead?

Every chair in a writers room is a job

I've done this. Years ago I made a pilot for a comedy series and hired a writers room for it, six people. Here's what nobody tells you about a room: nobody in it is there because they're a good writer. Everybody's a good writer; that's the floor. Every chair is a job. You hire one person because they run a show, one because they're funny when the room isn't, one because they know the lead better than you do, one because they can build the world past the edge of your budget.

"You build the room for the show you want to make, not the one you just made." So the room is the plan. You just have to read the chairs. And here's a detail I love. Going by the credits, season one was six chairs too: the three creators plus three writers. Two of those chairs come back, Mundy and Baden Kelly. Four are new.

Christopher Cantwell takes the King chair and Zack Whedon builds the universe

Chris Mundy is showrunner again. That chair is continuity. The man who held the tone of season one holds the wheel, so whatever changes, the voice of the show doesn't get thrown out.

Christopher Cantwell is the King chair, function for function. Cantwell co-created and ran Halt and Catch Fire, and he writes comics. For Marvel he wrote Doctor Doom, and that book got an Eisner nomination. For DC he wrote Plastic Man No More. So you lose a comics writer who can sit in a TV room and hire a comics writer who can run one. That Doom book is a villain's book, told from inside the man everybody else calls the bad guy. If I wanted Sinestro to be a lead in season 2, not a twist but a lead, Cantwell is the first call I would make.

Zack Whedon worked with Cantwell on Halt and Catch Fire. As a writer and producer, when you're running a room, you bring the person whose instincts you already trust. Look at the rest of his card: Fringe, a mythology show hiding inside a case of the week; Serenity in comics, which is space; and he co-wrote Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which is a villain you can root for. That's the space and mythology chair, the person who builds the universe past Rushville.

Hinds, Lui and Baden Kelly point toward John Stewart and the Guardians

Selwyn Seyfu Hinds created and ran Washington Black, a young Black boy's journey across the world with a mentor at his side. He wrote for Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone, and years back he was a consulting producer on a DC anthology called Strange Adventures that never got made. That's a showrunner sitting in a staff chair. You don't hire that person for a few jokes. That's the John Stewart chair: his family, his father, his legacy, the inside of John.

Nakkiah Lui created and starred in Kiki and Kitty and co-created and starred in Preppers. She was a consulting producer on The Great, a show that's funny while it's being cruel, and she wrote on Total Control, which is politics. That's the tone chair. If I'm reading it right, that's the chair that gets the Guardians: funny, political, and nobody in charge is a good guy.

Vanessa Baden Kelly is the only season one writer coming back besides Mundy. She wrote John's origin episode, which set a new series high for the show when it aired, and she co-wrote another episode with Mundy. You keep the person who wrote your lead's origin. She's the keeper of John's voice. Now add it up: nobody in this room was hired for Hal Jordan.

My five reads: Lanterns season 2 is built to be John Stewart's show

I want these on the record, because next Friday the autopsy opens and I'll have to answer for every one. One: it's John's show, period. A reader said he thinks this show is John's origin story and that John is the main character, and the chairs agree. The Hinds chair and the Baden Kelly chair are both John chairs. Season one was a mystery about Hal. Season two is built to be about John.

Two: the universe gets bigger. Readers have suggested that since the show is a hit, maybe there's a higher budget and more space. That's the Whedon chair; you don't hire the Fringe and Serenity guy if you intend to keep it in Nebraska. Three: it's about time for Sinestro's point of view. Asked whether the show is setting up a Sinestro Corps for season two, I say not crazy at all. That's the Cantwell chair: a man who wrote Doctor Doom from the inside, in the room that inherits Sinestro, on a planet where fear is the weather.

Four: somebody in charge isn't clean. That's the Lui chair. The Guardians have been in the corner of this whole season, and a room with a political satirist in it is a room that's going to sit them down and look at them. Five: Hal doesn't stay gone the way you think. More than 300 readers raised the idea that instead of bringing the older Hal back, the show could give life to the hologram Hal, a copy of Hal's consciousness. I'm with you more than I was. The Hal who stays with John is the Hal who can't lie, the one who just handed down his father's line. Nobody in the room was hired for the old Hal. That's a room that could keep the copy.

Here's the honest part: none of this happens unless HBO says yes. The room is a pitch, a really good one with six very specific people in it. King didn't get pushed out and he didn't leave; he's running another DC show, he's still involved, and Sunday's finale has his name all over it. What left the room is the box and the wound. What came in is a villain writer, a worldbuilder, a John Stewart writer, a satirist and the woman who wrote John's origin, all under the man who held the tone. That's not a room for the show we just saw. That's a room for the show after it. A studio can tell you anything in a press release. "Who it hires is the only thing it can't fake."

So pick the chair: which writer in that room are you most excited about, and what's the one scene you want them to write in season two?