Lanterns Season 1 Full Release Schedule: When Every Episode Comes Out

Lanterns is officially here, with early reviews largely praising its character-driven storytelling and the chemistry between its two leads, while noting that its uneven pacing leaves room for improvement. The HBO series is set to run for seven more weeks.

Lanterns is a new DCU show starring Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre as Hal Jordan and John Stewart, respectively, with the two Green Lanterns drawn into a murder mystery with cosmic implications. Originally announced in January 2023, the project immediately turned some heads due to its detective premise seeming like a natural fit for its showrunner of choice: Chris Mundy of Ozark and True Detective fame.

Lanterns Season 1 Has 8 Weekly Release Dates

One Down, Seven More Remaining

With the August 16 Lanterns "Pilot" episode and its shocking twist out of the way, the series is now set to continue airing every Sunday for another seven weeks. New episodes arrive on HBO Max at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET and are broadcast Sundays on HBO, with one exception; In regions where the simultaneous launch falls after midnight, episodes carry a Monday date instead, as is tradition with HBO. In the UK, for example, Episode 2 becomes available at 2 a.m. BST on August 24.

Lanterns Season 1 Release Schedule and Runtimes

The runtime information for the upcoming episodes is somewhat uncertain. In late July 2026, known leaker Cryptic4KQual reported that the Season 1 premiere would run for 57 minutes, while the official U.S. Apple TV listing now puts it at 56. The same source is also behind the widely reported details for Episodes 3 and 4, supposedly titled "OutKast" and "The Weenie," with runtimes of 54 and 52 minutes, respectively. Given the discrepancy between the reported and official runtime for the premiere, those remaining figures are best treated as provisional until the episodes are released.

Based on the finished 56-minute premiere and the three reported runtimes, Lanterns' first four episodes would total about three hours and 34 minutes. None is expected to reach the one-hour mark, giving the opening stretch a relatively compact runtime that suits Lanterns' grounded detective-drama approach and further distinguishes it from the DCU's traditionally larger-scale productions.

Looking ahead, Lanterns Season 2 has not been officially confirmed, but work on a potential follow-up is already underway. Showrunner Chris Mundy recently revealed that he and Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell have spent around six weeks breaking the story for a second season, with plans to present their ideas to HBO soon. Any renewal decision will likely depend at least in part on how the remainder of Season 1 performs and is received. A renewal would give Lanterns more room to establish its place within James Gunn's DC Universe, which is still in the somewhat early stages of its interconnected rollout.