Lanterns showrunner says they didn’t want to “make a big deal” about the DCU show’s Batman mention in episode 6: “There were fewer conversations than you’d think”

Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy says it was fairly easy to include that nod to the DCU’s Batman in episode 6.

“There were shockingly fewer conversations than you would think,” Mundy tells GamesRadar+. “It was in [the episode] right before it. John talks about some giant squid in Metropolis. And Kerry is from Gotham, which gets name-checked in episode 2. We wanted to make sure that we were name-checking the world, just because there is a greater world out there, that we wanted to say it was a real thing for our characters, and we didn’t wanna make a big deal about it, in a strange way.”

In Lanterns episode 6, John and Hal meet up in 2026. At the diner, Hal complains about Guy Gardner, the present-day Green Lantern, and tells John that Guy “ripped off that Bat-guy from Gotham. Put a beacon right in the middle of the fucking town here, so people can summon him.”

This isn’t the first mention of the DCU’s Batman, as he has a brief, non-speaking animated cameo in Creature Commandos (which is canon to the DCU), but it is the first live-action mention. As of right now, a Batman hasn’t been cast (though some fans are hoping it’s Reacher star Alan Ritchson). Robert Pattinson’s Batman exists as part of the Elseworlds universe, meaning it’s a DC property but isn’t part of the actual DCU.

Lanterns is airing weekly on HBO and HBO Max. For more, check out our breakdown of how to watch DC movies in order, and keep up with upcoming DC movies and shows on the way.

2019