The eighth and final episode of Peacemaker season 2 aired Thursday night, bringing an end to the John Cena superhero show on HBO Max. There are not currently plans for a third season, so it remains to be seen how the surviving characters will fit into the freshly rebooted DC Universe moving forward.
As for what comes next, Supergirl will be the next movie to hit theaters when it comes out on June 26, 2026. Before that, though, a show following the Green Lantern corps is coming to HBO. The series won’t be out until next year, but it’s still worth taking a look ahead at where it fits into the DC Universe and the end of Peacemaker.
(Warning: Spoilers for Peacemaker and Superman ahead).
How did Peacemaker Season 2 end?
After Adebayo bailed him out of prison, Peacemaker and the rest of the 11th Street Kids started their own agency called Checkmate. Before they could get things off the ground, though, Rick Flag Sr. kidnapped Peacemaker. A.R.G.U.S. dumped the antihero into Salvation, a livable planet they found while mapping out the Quantum Unfolding Chamber with Lex Luthor’s minions. Peacemaker is stranded there with a bunch of monsters when the season comes to a close, unable to make it back to Earth. In the comics, Amanda Waller, Rick Flag and the Suicide Squad trap dozens of villains on Salvation. It turns out that the prison planet is run by the New Gods of Apokolips, specifically DeSaad and Darkseid.
There wasn’t any explicit setup for Lanterns in Peacemaker season 2, but there were a few connections. Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner had a cameo appearance in season 2, episode 1. The brash, red-headed Green Lantern previously debuted in Superman, heading up the Justice Gang next to Hawkgirl, Mr. Terrific and Maxwell Lord.
When does Lanterns come out?
Lanterns is expected to come out in early 2026, premiering one episode a week for eight weeks. While it was initially greenlit as a Max exclusive, Lanterns became an HBO show during development. The Penguin went through a similar process in 2024.
Gunn previously mentioned that Lanterns would come out around the same time as Supergirl, so don’t expect it to come out too early in the year. HBO has the Game of Thrones prequel series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, taking up the prime Sunday night slot for most of January and February, anyways. House of the Dragon, on the other hand, is scheduled to premiere shortly after the Emmy eligibility window closes on May 31. HBO is likely to slot Lanterns somewhere in between those two blockbuster spinoffs, so look for it to premiere in March or April.
What will Lanterns be about?
Aaron Pierre will star as new recruit John Stewart, while Kyle Chandler is set to play the more experienced Hal Jordan. Stewart and Jordan are members of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic peacekeeping organization that wields magic green rings. The series will begin with a murder investigation in Nebraska, expanding in scope from there. Gunn has repeatedly described the series as “grounded” and “real,” comparing it to True Detective. He also confirmed that Guy Gardner would appear in the show. The head of the studio has not said anything about the Checkmate or Salvation plots continuing in Lanterns, however.
Lanterns was co-created by Damon Lindelof, who previously co-created Lost, The Leftovers and Watchmen. The three-time Emmy winner also had a hand in writing the modern Star Trek reboot, Prometheus, World War Z and Tomorrowland.
What other DC projects are coming up?
After Lanterns and Supergirl come out, a Clayface film directed by Mike Flanagan is next up on the docket. The shape-shifting Batman antagonist will hit the big screen on September 11, 2026. The only other movie with a confirmed release date is Man of Tomorrow, a Superman sequel pegged for July 9, 2027.
The sequel to Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson’s The Batman is currently on the books for October 1, 2027. Part II, which is set to start shooting in January, is not considered part of the mainline DC Universe at the moment. There is a separate Batman film in development – The Brave and the Bold – alongside Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, The Authority, Teen Titans and Sgt. Rock movies. As for TV, season 2 of Gunn’s animated series Creature Commandos is in production. Live-action Booster Gold and Waller shows are in various stages of early development, as are animated Mister Miracle and Blue Beetle shows.
My Adventures with Superman season 3, meanwhile, is in post-production and could come out on Adult Swim as early as 2025. There is no word on an official release date for the animated series, though. Season 1 premiered in July 2023, while season 2 started airing in May 2024. My Adventures with Superman is not cannon to the rest of James Gunn’s DC Universe, but there is a My Adventures with Green Lantern spinoff in the works.
