First announced by DC Studios’ co-chairs James Gunn and Peter Safran in January 2022, the streaming series Lanterns is poised to play a major role in the DCU’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. Described by Safran as a “terrestrial-based investigation story” in the vein of HBO’s True Detective, the series will be focused on Green Lantern Corps members Hal Jordan and John Stewart who “find this ancient horror on Earth, and these guys are basically supercops on “Precinct Earth” which will play “a really big role leading us into the main story” of the studio’s initial shared narrative.
THR’s Borys Kit and Rick Porter reported that Primetime Emmy award winner Kyle Chandler will be suiting up as the DCU’s Hal Jordan.
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 foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with Superman.
-James Gunn and Peter Safran on HBO’s Lanterns
Chandler won his Emmy in 2011 for his portrayal of Texas football coach Eric Taylor in the NBC series, Friday Night Lights. Over the past decade, Chandler has had plenty of other memorable roles, starring as FBI Agent Denham in The Wolf of Wall Street and in both Godzilla: King of Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong. With Chandler on board, the studio will continue its search for an actor to portray John Stewart, though Elvis star Kelvin Harrision Jr. was recently rumored to be a top choice.
When Matt Reeves‘ The Batman hit theaters in 2022, it was clear that the Gotham which Robert Pattinson‘s Batman sought to protect had a long, dark and sordid past. Corruption ran so deep in Gotham that it might rightly be believed to be a cornerstone of the great city. So strong was the foothold of organized crime in Gotham that the crime families and their goons were entitled and emboldened to carry out their crimes while still considering themselves good men.
Despite being as warped as the foot that caused his Penguin pimp limp, Falcone family capo Oz Cobb believed himself to be one of those good men. Colin Farrell’s portrayal of Oz in The Batman demanded a follow-up performance which has now hit Max in the form of the limited streaming series, The Penguin. And the series pulls no punches about its lead character nor does it provide any quarter for a man who finds himself in a mess of his own making.
If The Penguin weren’t known to be a spinoff set in Reeves‘ Batman Epic Crime Saga, it would be as unrecognizable as a comic book-based property as its star is in the lead role. The Penguin shares far more in common with any number of HBO’s prestige crime dramas and Episode 1, “After Hours”, embraces that legacy. It goes full gangster right away and it looks as though the series will benefit from its forthright approach as an exploration of the world of organized crime and the types of people who inhabit it.
Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. -Salvador Dali
Central to Episode 1 and presumably the series are Farrell‘s Cobb and Cristin Milioti‘s Sofia Falcone. Oz wastes no time in unintentionally making an enemy out of Sofia and much of the first episode is spent with Oz apparently spinning his wheels. However, the true brilliance of the episode comes in its closing moments. In his own words, Cobb knows he inhabits a world of big men who need to believe he’s small…and so he allows them their fantasies, using his rough appearance and demeanor to serve as a facade for an ingenious criminal mind. And by episode’s end, Cobb has engineered the rise of the Maroni family he once took down and set himself up as all nut untouchable.
Thematically, ambition is at the episode’s core and from Cobb’s words to his new partner in crime, Vic, to the 9 to 5 needle drop, there’s no chance it can be forgotten. Cobb’s ambition is second to none and now, with his brilliant mind free to cook, his time has come. Every bit as ambitious as its title character, The Penguin is as intelligent, violent and grounded in the human condition as the great HBO dramas it aspires to be.
While their Power Rings are flashy, the members of the Green Lantern Corps are nothing without willpower…and right now DC Studios could use a heavy dose of it as they continue the search for their Hal Jordan. Just a couple of weeks after a star-studded shortlist for the “grizzled vet” of the Corps was revealed, a new report indicates that several stars on that list have passed on the role.
This is a story of a couple of Green Lanterns John Stewart and Hal Jordan. We have a few other Lanterns peppered in there but this is really a terrestrial-based TV show which is almost like True Detective with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over Precinct Earth in it they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our largest story of the DCU.
_James Gunn on DC Studios Lanterns
With production on the series slated to kick off in Atlanta in January 2025, the studio still has time to fill the role of Jordan; however, given that the series will focus on both Jordan and fellow Lantern Jon Stewart, they’ll likely want to roll through at least a couple of rounds of table reads with potential actors for Stewart to ensure the two leads have the right chemistry.
DC Studios’ new shared cinematic universe is set to get off the ground with Creature Commandos, an animated streaming series set for a December release on HBO. Studio co-chair James Gunn recently explained that Creature Commandos will give fans “a little nibble” of what to expect from the DCU before it begins in earnest in 2025 with Superman. Since Gunn and Peter Safran revealed their plans for the DCU’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters in early 2022, some projects have leaped ahead of others causing some confusion about what’s up next for DC Studios after Superman. Thanks to Gunn, that won’t be a problem anymore.
Before the extended work stoppages in Hollywood in 2023, another streaming series, Waller, was expected to follow Superman. However, Gunn revealed that the writers’ strike had slowed Waller’s development, causing the studio to rethink its streaming slate.
Season 1 of the John Cena-led Max series, which Gunn created, caught fans by surprise. Production on Season 2 began while Gunn was still working on Superman, leading to some speculation that David Corenswet’s Man of Steel could appear in the streaming series. Given that Peacemaker is now confirmed to be the direct follow-up to Superman, it does seem increasingly likely that not only will there be some crossover between the two projects but it will be used to explain how Cena’s character comes to be active in the new DCU.
James Gunn and Peter Safran set themselves the titanic task of creating an all-new, all-different DCU from the rumble of the previous iteration. To do so, the DC Studios co-chairs had to ensure that their projects looked and felt as different as possible from their predecessor…and by launching the new shared universe with a canonical animated series, they’ve done just that.
Written by Gunn, the seven-episode streaming series Creature Commandos will provide what he calls “a little nibble” of what to expect from the DCU, allowing fans to “see what it tastes like.” Now fans finally know when they can expect the hors d’oeuvres.
Gunn took to social media to reveal that Creature Commandos will debut on Max on December 5th.
In an interview with EW, Gunn explained that part of what drew him to Creature Commandos was how far removed it was from the “mainstream” DC Comics series that most folks know and love.
The thing I’ve always loved about DC Comics was that you had your mainstream comics that always ran, but they also had these tonally different comics like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns and All-Star Superman. It was different from Marvel in that way. That’s something that I really want to retain within the studio, that every project is going to bring a different vision by the artists who are creating it.
-James Gunn, EW, September 2024
And for Gunn, dealing with “different” has proven to be his wheelhouse in superhero fare so far. While working with Marvel Studios, Gunn bravely launched a Guardians of the Galaxy franchise full of misfit comic book characters that general audiences had never heard of before and turned them into household names. While fans might see some similarities between the Guardians and the Commandos, Gunn cautions that this isn’t just an animated Guardians redux. “I’m used to dealing with oddballs and irregular types and weirdos,” said Gunn. “That’s what Guardians is, and Creature Commandos is kind of like Guardians without the sentimentality. The Guardians are all really good characters at their heart, and that just isn’t necessarily the case with the creatures.“
While kicking off an all-new, all-different shared universe with an animated series filled with characters that only hardcore fans of DC Comics will know and that may not prove as loveable and Rocket and Groot might seem risky, Gunn is confident that Creature Commandos will effectively set the table for the DCU. “Superman is the true start of everything, it’s a humongous epic. This is a way for people to just take a little nibble and see what it tastes like,” Gunn says. “There are a ton of fun references to other DC stuff, a bunch of hints for things that are coming. So I think it’s just an extraordinarily fun way to start.“
Co-chair James Gunn described DC Studios’ streaming series Lanterns as playing a “really big role leading us into the main story” of the DCU’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. And Gunn and Peter Safran have assembled an incredibly talented group of creators to put the project together. In May, Gunn announced the “crack team of writers” behind Lanterns: DC Comics writer Tom King, Ozark showrunner Chris Mundy and Lost and HBO’s Watchmen creator, Damon Lindelof. Having already put together a team of heavy hitters to create the show, the studio next set out to land some big talent to put in front of the camera, offering the role of Hal Jordan to Josh Brolin. Now, as they wait on Brolin’s decision and continue to prepare for production to kick off, they’ve also begun searching for directors for the series and, once again, have shot for the stars.
This is a story of a couple of Green Lanterns John Stewart and Hal Jordan. We have a few other Lanterns peppered in there but this is really a terrestrial-based TV show which is almost like True Detective with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over Precinct Earth in it they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our largest story of the DCU.
-James Gunn on Lanterns
According to Jeff “The In” Sneider, DC Studios has contacted Prime Time Emmy Award-winning director Stephen Williams about directing the pilot episode of Lanterns.
Williams checks all the boxes as an excellent choice for Lanterns having directed two episodes each of HBO’s Watchmen and Westworld as well as multiple episodes of Ray Donovan, The Walking Dead, and, of course, twenty-six episodes of Lost. A frequent collaborator with Lindelof, Williams would be working from what Gunn described as “a wonderful pilot script and bible” from the creative team. At this time, no other directors have been mentioned for Lanterns, which was ordered straight to series at HBO earlier this year.
According to Jeff “The In” Sneider, should Brolin turn down the role of Jordan, MatthewMcConaughey is one of at least two big names DC Studios has interest in approaching. Though he has only recently dabbled in superhero fare as the voice of Cowboypool in Deadpool & Wolverine, McConaughey is no stranger to working with HBO on a prestige series. McConaughey’s role as Detective Rust Cohle in the first season of True Detective landed him ten award nominations, making him one of the series’ most recognized talents. McConaughey would be a bold choice for the role of Jordan and would certainly bring with him the requisite charisma and brashness of the former test pilot turned space cop.
Hello There!
If McConaughey‘s name appearing on a short list of actors for the role of Hal Jordan surprised you, Ewan McGregor would certainly do the same and then some. Alas, Sneider shared the news that Obi-Wan Kenobi is on DC Studios’ radar for the role of Jordan. McGregor most recently starred in the Hulu series A Gentleman in Moscow and also received rave reviews for his work on Fargo and won a Primetime Emmy for his role in the Netflix limited series Halston.
While there’s been no official timeline provided by Gunn or Safran, with a casting search underway for the series’ leads, it would seem reasonable to assume that production on Lanterns could begin in early 2025.
After years of being remembered as one of the most maligned comic book movies of all time, DC’s Green Lantern IP is getting another shot at stardom…and so far it’s shaping up to be one hell of a comeback.
According to Nexus Point News, DC Studios’ has extended an offer to Josh Brolin to fill the role of DC’s most well-known Lantern, Hal Jordan.
Brolin, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 2009 film Milk, is one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars and would bring even more credibility to Lanterns already impressive roster of talent. No stranger to superhero fare, having portrayed Thanos in the MCU and Cable in Deadpool 2, Brolin also has a successful streaming series under his belt in Prime’s Outer Range.
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 foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with Superman.
-James Gunn and Peter Safran on Lanterns
Previously described as a “terrestrial-based investigation story” that “plays a really big role leading us into the main story” in the DCU’s first chapter of stories, Lanterns will revolve around the central characters finding an “ancient horror on Earth.” Word is that Jordan will be a grizzled vet–which makes Brolin a great choice–and that Stewart will be a new member of the Corps working with him as “supercops on Precinct Earth.”
As DC Studios’ co-chairs James Gunn and Peter Safran continue putting the finishing touches on Creature Commandos, the first project of the all-new, all-different DCU era, one of the studio’s Elseworlds projects that survived that change in direction at the WBD is nearing its premiere. The Penguin–an interquel to Matt Reeves‘ TheBatman and The Batman Part II–will debut on HBO and Max on Thursday, September 19th, with new episodes then debuting on Sunday nights beginning on September 29th.
This thrilling crime drama follows Oswald “Oz” Cobb’s quest for control in Gotham City. With the city in peril following the seawall’s collapse, Oz (Oscar® nominee Colin Farrell) seeks to fill the power vacuum left by the death of Carmine Falcone and finally give his mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell) the life he’s always promised. But first, Oz must confront his enemies, including Carmine’s children, Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) and Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen); the Maroni family, led by their imprisoned patriarch, Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown); and Oz’s own demoralizing reputation as “The Penguin.”
-Official Synopsis for The Penguin
Part of The Epic Batman Crime Saga, The Penguin is an eight-episode series that follows Colin Farrell‘s Oz through the immediate aftermath of the events of The Batman. With the series premiere just around the corner, members of the media have begun screening early episodes and, as a result, the titles and runtimes of the first four episodes of the series have leaked.
EP 1 – After Hours (1 hr 7 mins) EP 2 – Inside Man (56 mins) EP 3 – Bliss (59 mins) EP 4 – Cent’Anni (58 mins)
Nothing about the episode titles for showrunner Lauren LeFranc’s series seems too spoilery; however, the episode lengths are fairly notable. Whereas Marvel Studios is often criticized by fans for rolling out streaming episodes that are too short, HBO is giving The Penguin the prestige treatment, with runtimes similar to series such as House of the Dragon or True Detective. As revealed by runtime go-to-guy Cryptic HD Quality, the first episode of The Penguin will eclipse the hour mark while each of the next three will come in just under it.
With the follow-up to 2022’s The Batman set to enter into production next year and not expected in theaters until 2026, The Penguin looks to be serving up an impressive 8ish hours of content to bridge the gap!
About The Penguin
Starring Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb (aka The Penguin), the eight-episode HBO Original limited series from DC Studios continues the epic crime saga that filmmaker Matt Reeves began with the global blockbuster The Batman. The cast also includes Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Michael Zegen, Carmen Ejogo and Theo Rossi.
Based on characters created for DC by Bob Kane with Bill Finger, The Penguin is produced by 6th & Idaho Productions and Dylan Clark Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Executive producers, Matt Reeves, Dylan Clark, Colin Farrell, Lauren LeFranc, Craig Zobel, Bill Carraro, and Daniel Pipski; writer and showrunner, Lauren LeFranc.
On the heels of winning San Diego Comic-Con with the Avengers news that shook the fandom, and with a film at the box office in Deadpool and Wolverine which is breaking records, the MCU is riding high. And this weekend’s D23 event may provide an additional jolt of enthusiasm about the franchise. However, with only Agatha All Along on Disney Plus to sustain content appetites for the rest of the year, we can expect to see some loss of momentum, particularly when the next shoe drops with respect to the beleaguered Blade film.
2. Game of Thrones (WBD)
This weekend’s House of the Dragon finale will likely cap a season that undoubtedly restored the feeling for the television franchise that reigned over the monoculture like a Targaryen Dynasty. And with additional spinoffs in the works, all skepticism about sustainability has been melted away with dragon flame. Warner Brothers Discovery’s flagship franchise is flying high, and we continue to whistle that iconic theme.
3. Star Wars (Disney)
The mixed reaction to The Acolyte and the continuing Culture War noise surrounding this franchise have really left Star Wars vulnerable. A Skeleton Crew trailer release is imminent, and maybe an infusion of Stranger Things energy into the graying, embittered fandom will do it some good. This is a franchise built on childlike wonder, and much of the recent content has been lacking in that regard.
4. The Boys (Amazon)
Head-to-head against The Acolyte, the most recent season of The Boys held its own in terms of mindshare, and even though Season 4 didn’t hit the highs of previous seasons, that hasn’t stopped Amazon from greenlighting a prequel spinoff to go with the Mexico-set spinoff announced a while back. The fact that the next season will be its final one will center it even more firmly in the discourse, as fans and critics will wonder if it can “stick the landing.” If anything, The Boys’ biggest Achilles heel might be the extent to which real-life steals its absurdist thunder.
5. Dune (WBD)
With one of the most critically and commercially successful films of the year, a sequel expected to be fast-tracked, and the spinoff prequel Dune: Prophecy series set for November on HBO, 2024 has been quite the year for the Dune franchise. And that’s before the memes. However, it does still remain to be seen how far the franchise climbs in the pop cultural consciousness, or whether this year will be its apex, given that other franchises were hobbled by the pandemic and the strikes, and given that things get extra weird on Arrakis from here on out.
6. DC Elseworlds (WBD)
While James Gunn‘s DCU prepares to pull out of the station, fans of those characters will get to visit Gotham twice this fall, as the HBO series The Penguin returns us to the world of Matt Reeves’ The BatmanEpic Crime Saga. And although Robert Pattinson’s Batman is unlikely to feature heavily in the series, his shadow will likely loom over the story. And at the cinema, the highly anticipated sequel to the billion-dollar grossing Jokerwill offer us another glimpse into Todd Phillips’ Scorsese-tinged hyper-reality, as Lady Gaga‘s Harley Quinn enters the fray. Other alternate universe projects have yet to be announced, and details remain limited on the proper sequel to The Batman, but needless to say, the more successful these two projects are, the more likely that others will also see the light of day.
7. DCU (WBD)
Supermanhas recently wrapped, the first teaser trailer for Creature Commandos(dropping in December) has been released, and news items about upcoming projects continue to surface. Still, while anticipation for what James Gunn is cooking up remains high, excitement is muted. There was no SDCC panel, and it’s possible that audiences won’t get non-set leak Supermanfootage until 2025. So for the remainder of 2024, we could very well be in “wait and see” mode.
8. Star Trek (Paramount)
Although it’s been many years since the last Star Trek film (despite Quentin Tarantino‘s best efforts to give audiences “Hard R Trek”), the franchise has been flourishing on streaming, with a number of well-regarded series on Paramount Plus, and more on the way. And the recent announcement of the first live-action comedy in the franchise’s history could push Star Trek further into the mainstream than it’s been in years.
9. MonsterVerse (Legendary/WBD)
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was moderately successful at the box office, and the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters streaming series was well-received, albeit underappreciated, with a second season on the way. This franchise still has its drawing power, but its days at the top of the zeitgeist may be behind it.
10. Spider-Verse (Sony)
Tom Holland‘s MCU Spider-Man franchise is represented elsewhere, but through the power of the Spider-Verse franchise, every possible Spidey and Spidey-adjacent character — be they in the Amazon researching spiders before dying, bonding with goopy alien symbiotes in San Francisco, or…doing whatever Kraven is doing — is connected via multiversal web. And Beyond the Spider-Verse very well might connect these divergent threads. There’s still no word on when that movie will drop, but for now, fans of the Venom films can look forward to the conclusion of that trilogy in Venom: The Last Dance, which releases in October.
11. Transformers/GI Joe (Paramount)
Last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beastsrevealed that the two franchises were being merged, and while there’s a degree of uncertainty as to when we’ll get that film, next month’s Transformers: One animated film will give longtime fans the robot-centric big screen adventure they’ve clamored for since they first discovered Stan Bush’s “The Touch.”
12. Lord of the Rings (WBD/Amazon)
While technically, the rights to the Tolkien books have been bifurcated, and the Rings of Power series will likely never cross over with the LOTR projects in the works at Warner Brothers, each is capable of elevating the overall excitement around the stories told on Middle Earth. But unfortunately, Season 1 of Rings of Power, despite its budget and the advertising blitz around it, never really hit the mainstream, and it’s hard to see Season 2 breaking through.
13. Jurassic Park/World (Universal)
Yes, they’re still making these, and yes, the films still have a billion-dollar upside. But with less than a year until the next film, directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, is slated to hit theaters, it’s hard to see what new ground this franchise could stake out to fire up the fanbase.
14. Harry Potter (WBD)
Putting aside the toxic JK Rowling of it all, this franchise needs a cultural reset, and indeed, WBD is looking to introduce a new generation to the world of wizards and wands. They’re still a few years away from getting that project out, though, and who knows what nonsense JK could say or do to further sully the franchise’s legacy before then.
15. Anne Rice Immortal Universe (AMC)
Yes, The Walking Dead has been an AMC mainstay, but while that seems to be limping along, the series based on the Anne Rice novels seem to be gathering momentum. However, despite their highly engaged fan followings, particularly forInterview With the Vampire, the media landscape for these shows doesn’t seem favorable for a jump into the mainstream anytime soon.
Honorable Mention:
The Walking Dead (AMC), Mission: Impossible (Paramount), Fast &Furious (Universal), Mad Max (WBD), John Wick (Lionsgate), Ghostbusters (Sony), James Bond (EON)
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