HBO has, at long last, given a series order for Lanterns, based on the DC Comics characters John Stewart and Hal Jordan. Ozark’s Chris Mundy will serve as showrunner on the eight-episode series and co-write alongside Damon Lindelof, best known for his work on Watchmen and Lost, and Tom King, known for his work on a number of Batman titles.

The news comes after an almost five-year-long development process at HBO Max, as they were originally developing the series with producer Greg Berlanti, the mastermind of the DC Arrowverse on The CW and one of the writers on the ill-fated, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively-starring 2011 Green Lantern feature film. Initially, the series was going to centre on Guy Gardner and Alan Scott, with Seth Grahame-Smith coming aboard as writer and showrunner, even writing a full season’s worth of scripts for the show.

With a creative overhaul in 2022, however, Grahame-Smith’s vision was scrapped and the powers that be chose to refocus the series around John Stewart, another member of the Lanter Corps and the first Black superhero to appear in DC Comics.

“We’re thrilled to bring this seminal DC title to HBO with Chris, Damon and Tom at the helm,” DC Heads James Gunn and Peter Safran said in a statement. “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.”