Tom King has seemingly hinted at Hal Jordan's death in Lanterns, leaving DC fans heartbroken. Here's what the shocking suggestion could mean.
Two days after Lanterns premiered on HBO on August 16, Hal Jordan is a frozen corpse on a snow-covered football field in Nebraska, and showrunner Chris Mundy is asking fans for patience: wait until episode 8.
Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan doesn’t survive the first hour of DC Studios’ third live-action series, and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart is left holding a missing power ring and a murder nobody can explain yet. That’s a big ask of the audience — and it’s a bet co-creator Tom King has made before. It hasn’t always paid off.
King’s two most celebrated comics both open in the middle of a wreck and ask readers to sit with it. Mister Miracle, the 2017-2018 series he wrote with artist Mitch Gerads, opens on the title character’s suicide attempt and never fully looks away from it. It won King the Eisner Award for Best Writer and later took home Best Limited Series, and the acclaim held up well enough that DC Studios greenlit an adult animated adaptation in 2025, with King himself showrunning.
The Vision, his 2015-2016 Marvel series about a synthetic family trying to be normal in the suburbs, ends in tragedy too — and also earned King an Eisner. In both cases, critics and fans treated the devastation as earned rather than gratuitous. Neither story asked anyone to trust a promise; the payoff was on the page from issue one.
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Heroes in Crisis is the version of this bet that blew up. The 2018-2019 DC series killed off a group of heroes at Sanctuary, a trauma-therapy retreat, then spent its final issues revealing that Wally West — freshly restored to continuity after years away — had caused the deaths during a panic attack, then covered it up. The reception was rough. Longtime Wally fans and critics called it a betrayal of the character, and King has since said plainly that the backlash was real: “People f*cking hated it so much.” DC spent years quietly walking pieces of it back, and King has said in interviews there are things about the story he’d change if he could.
There’s a pattern readers of King’s other work have pointed to: when he’s building a character from the ground up, like Scott Free in Mister Miracle, the risk-taking reads as vision. When he’s handling a legacy character other writers built — someone with decades of fan investment already attached — the same instincts have landed as violation instead.
That distinction matters for Lanterns. Hal Jordan isn’t a blank-slate creation — he’s a Silver Age icon with sixty-plus years of continuity, much like Wally West was walking into Heroes in Crisis. And the Lanterns creative team has been open that the show is built as John Stewart’s story first: Hal’s death exists to launch someone else’s arc, the same structural move that made Wally’s fate in Heroes in Crisis feel like it served the plot more than the character.
That’s the precedent worth watching over the next seven episodes — not whether King can write a gutting death scene. He’s proven twice he can. The open question is whether Hal gets treated as a person whose death means something on its own terms, or as fuel for John Stewart’s story the way Wally became fuel for Sanctuary’s mystery.
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King’s “trust the process” pitch deserves more skepticism than blind faith right now — not out of doubt in his talent, but because his history shows exactly one failure mode, and this setup matches it closely.
The smarter thing to watch for isn’t episode 8’s big reveal; it’s how much agency Hal is given in the 2016-timeline flashbacks between now and then. If he’s still a full character and not just a ghost explaining John’s growth, King’s batting average holds. If not, Lanterns may be heading toward its own Wally West problem.
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DC’s Lost Zatanna movie hit the dust- find out what Emerald Fennell’s dark, chic take on the character was and why Warner Bros abruptly ended production.
A special kind of heartbreak is reserved for the “best movies never made.” We preoccupy ourselves with Jodorowsky’s Dune and Del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness, speculating on how they might have altered the cinematic terrain. In 2026, with Emerald Fennell on the press trail for her raw adaptation of Wuthering Heights, a new identity was officially added to that tragic pantheon: Zatanna.
For years, speculation has swirled about what the Oscar-winning writer/director of Promising Young Woman and Saltburn might do with DC’s best stage magician. Now, with Fennell’s recent frank interviews, we at last have a peek behind the curtain.
“It wasn’t a superhero flick, it was a fairly deranged saga about a nervous breakdown.”
–She says
Fennell depicted Zatanna around the time of a very strong personal and professional transition. Immediately following her Academy Award win, she was catapulted into the high-gloss Hollywood movie star — a world she didn’t quite recognize.
Feigen became the tool she used to filter her alienation through the script. Instead of a typical origin story in which a hero discovers how to use their powers to save the world, Fennell’s Zatanna is a woman coming undone.
I had this very simple question: “How do I make a superhero movie that I’m comfortable watching with my kids and that personally speaks to me?” I was a woman having a breakdown.
— Emerald Fennell
This wasn’t just “gritty” like we’ve grown accustomed to from DC, it was psychological terror. For a character like Zatanna, who practices Logomancy (speaking backwards to affect reality), a broken mind is a frightening weapon. When the magician loses her grasp on reason, reality itself starts to distort.
If you’ve seen Saltburn, you’re aware Fennell doesn’t do “palatable.” Her take on Zatanna would almost certainly have swapped clean CGI energy blasts for something more tactile and grotesque.
| Feature | The Traditional Heroine | Fennell’s Zatanna (The Archetype) |
| Mental State | Resilient & Stoic | Fractured & “Hysterical” |
| Relationship to Power | A Responsibility | An Addiction/Burden |
| Aesthetic | Clean & Heroic | Grotesque & Baroque |
This incarnation of the character was described as a “hard woman” — untidy, scary, and thoroughly human. It was a dismissal of the “cool girl” trope, instead dwelling on the bodily and cognitive toll of doing magic.
The removal of Fennell’s Zatanna exemplifies an escalating anxiety in contemporary film: the struggle between auteur ambition and franchise security. While Zatanna probably will debut in the new DCU (if not before in James Mangold’s Swamp Thing), she will unquestionably be a more “stable” version of the character.
Fennell’s “lost” script is still an intriguing “what if” — a souvenir from a moment when the superhero genre nearly gripped something decidedly raw, unsettling, and revolutionary. It appears that in today’s blockbuster economy there’s a lot of room for monsters, but precious little for meltdowns.
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The still unproduced Emerald Fennell’s Zatanna is not merely a scrapped project, it’s an alarm that modern blockbuster cinema is too scared to ring. With all the sophistication as well as volatility of the mind, it tested safe franchise logic that was unthinking. What we lost was not a superhero movie, it’s a risk. And in today’s studio system, that may be a rarer magic than any other.
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Discover what DC Chapter 2 means for Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, including upcoming stories, films, and character arcs.
James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the fractured universe of DC studios in 2022 for a fresh start with officially launched Chapter One: Gods and Monsters on the big screen. In 2025, Superman set a tone for the new hopeful future of the DC universe. And with that foundation DC is moving forward for DC Chapter 2 trinity, future of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
According to a confirmed report from various sources, the films are in production or stories being written for this iconic trio which will lift up the era. Here’s the breakdown of where the Man of Steel, the Dark Knight, and the Amazon Warrior are headed in the DC universe.
These three characters are not just DC’s most famous faces. They are, in Gunn’s own framework, the load-bearing pillars of everything that comes after. The strategy for the Trinity in Chapter 1 has been all about intentional, separate world-building. The Future of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman is all set after Superman has firmly established himself as the beacon of hope in a world that already has metahumans.
Gunn’s approach to Batman, Superman & Wonder Woman After Chapter 1 is clearly leading to an eventual, earned crossover. Gunn confirmed the trio will come together on the big screen in a recent interview which suggests that Batman and Wonder Woman are still being written. But they aren’t rushing it.
DC is actively redefining these heroes across all mediums to prepare for what comes next in DC Chapter 2.
If you are wondering What’s Next for Batman, Superman & Wonder Woman?, the answer is rich, creator-driven solo stories that organically build toward a unified front.
Superman Man of Tomorrow, is slated for July 9, 2027 David Corenswet returns as Clark Kent with new suit and alliance Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor to face a massive common enemy. The new costume features a larger chest symbol and slightly darker coloring, signalling a Superman who has grown into his role in the roughly two years since the first film.
The Superman alliance with Lex Luther is surprising and it suggests that no hero can fight alone for a much bigger threat. That bigger threat is Brainiac. He is the most dangerous villain in DC comics, the planet-collecting, intelligence-harvesting alien tyrant.
The film follows a real time value of leap from Superman 2025 to Superman 2027. This two year gap bridged with the Supergirl 2026 film starring Milly Alcock, who also make third appearance in the next Superman film. Man of Tomorrow also introduced a new cast – Aaron Pierre, who plays John Stewart / Green Lantern in the HBO series Lanterns, confirming the cosmic stakes of the Brainiac threat.
Batman’s The Brave & The Bold is in development and Batman is one of the trinity heroes which have the most complicated path forward. The story focuses on Batman’s legacy and league of assassins with Older Bruce Wayne who discovers he has fathered a child with Talia al Ghul. It makes Batman more exciting and new to the audience, and finally Robin returns to theatres for the first time since 1997.
But Gunn has made it very clear that No film moves at DC Studios until the screenplay is finished to his satisfaction. The Future of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman is not going to compromise. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that The Flash screenwriter Christina Hodson had been brought on to write the script along with Director Andy Muschietti.
Matt Reeves’ Batman is set in DC’s separate “Elseworlds” continuity. Robert Pattinson portrayed Bruce Wayne, who is a detective-obsessed. The returning cast are Scarlett Johansson, Andy Serkis (Alfred), Jeffrey Wright and Sebastian Stan. Reeves focused on Gotham as a neo-noir crime epic which was totally not connected to anything in Gunn’s DCU.
James Gunn also shares excitement with DC fans by suggesting that Chapter 1 ends with Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince. Now DC Chapter 2 introducing a new Wonder Woman is being written from the ground up. Variety and Deadline confirmed Ana Nogueira is writing a new Wonder Woman who also wrote Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and proved herself with her complex, mythological characters.
There is no official confirmation of the character’s casting but speculations are circulating that Andor star Adria Arjona might play Diana. Before we get a new Wonder Woman film, the prequel is in development which explores the political intrigue of Themyscira before Diana’s birth. A fresh start that lets Diana be defined by who she is, not when she arrives.
The Secret Behind DC Chapter 2 isn’t a rushed Justice League team-up crossover event, it patiently prepares a world where each character gets space to explore. Gunn’s strategy is different from the previous DC era which is good as its working.
James Gunn has never publicly announced a “DC Chapter 2.” but the DC studios are already showing that the Trinity comes last, not first. Gunn is fixing a mistake which has done Zack Snyder’s DCEU, Superman in Man of Steel was released in 2013 and then rushed to a Batman vs. Superman face-off and that took away the character’s proper development on their own terms.
James Gunn has made it a hard rule for DC Studios: No movie goes into production without a finished, fantastic script. This is the secret sauce. By letting projects like the Clayface horror movie, Peacemaker, Supergirl or the Lanterns HBO series breathe and establish the gritty and cosmic corners of the universe, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the deeper Superman mythology are being held back until the scripts are genuinely ready.
DC Chapter 2 is not a product launch but a narrative necessity to build the world with interconnection between the characters.like Supergirl sits between the two Superman films. But each project is also designed to work as a standalone story.
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The harsh reality of comic book cinema is that the foundation must be rock solid. The trinity is not a group of superheroes but they are modern mythology. Why DC’s Future Depends on These Three Heroes comes down to legacy and trust.
If the audience doesn’t connect with these three core pillars, the rest of the universe collapses. James Gunn knows that to make audiences care about the weird and wacky sides of DC, they first need to fall back in love with the icons.
The Future of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman is incredibly bright. With Man of Tomorrow on the horizon, The Brave and the Bold taking its time to get the Bat-Family right, and Paradise Lost setting up the deep lore of the Amazons, the DC Chapter 2 Trinity is in the safest hands they’ve been in for a decade.
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The Future of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman after Chapter 1 are not resting on their legacies. They are rebuilding with comic DNA intact, creative teams and franchise philosophy that prioritize interesting stories rather than speed launch.
James Gunn’s DC is prepared differently from Zack Snyder’ s DC, the DC Trinity has always been bigger than three superheroes. If the characters are executed as Gunn’s and the Writers wanted then audiences are going to feel it on screen in ways they haven’t felt in a DC film in a very long time.
Chapter 1 built the foundation. DC Chapter 2 expands the universe for these three legendary heroes. The DC universe is giving perfect reasons for building excitement among the audience.
