‘Lanterns’ Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score Breaks DCU Record

James Gunn and Peter Safran officially kicked off their new DC Universe in 2024 with Creature Commandos, an animated series about a team of monsters sent on dangerous missions at the behest of the U.S. government. Since then, Gunn and Safran have put out a few more entries in their DCU, including the successful movie Superman and its unsuccessful spin-off Supergirl.

That brings us to Lanterns, the first live-action show set within this new continuity. The series stars Kyle Chandler as the Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who’s training up-and-comer John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) to follow in his footsteps, little as either of them may enjoy it. The show has gotten high marks from critics, and now that the first episode has officially dropped, audiences are getting a chance to weigh in.

Based on audience scores from Rotten Tomatoes, they’re enjoying it. As of this writing, the audience score for Lanterns sits at 88%. That’s higher than any other project yet released in the DCU, including the first season of Peacemaker (the first season of Peacemaker was technically released before Gunn and Safran took over, but parts of it have been grandfathered into the new continuity). In fact, Lanterns Season 1 has the highest audience score of any TV series in the DCU, and has the second-highest score overall, behind Superman.

DCU Projects	Critics’ Score	Audience Score
Superman	83%	90%
Lanterns Season 1	95%	88%
Peacemaker Season 1	93%	87%
Creature Commandos Season 1	95%	79%
Peacemaker Season 2	94%	79%
Supergirl	52%	73%

Lanterns has scored very well with critics, too; it currently has a rating of 95%, tied for first place with the first season of Creature Commandos. Lanterns even does well if you include the 2022 film The Batman and the 2024 TV series The Penguin, both of which are based on DC Comics even if they’re not technically in the same continuity as Lanterns. The Batman has a critics’ score of 85% and an audience score of 87%, while The Penguin has a critics’ score of 95% and an audience score of 85%.

Of course, these scores could change as time goes on; after all, it hasn’t even been a full day since the series premiere of Lanterns dropped. But these initial numbers are excellent, and great news for fans hoping for a second season.

The first episode of Lanterns ended with a shocking twist that will hopefully get people interested in the rest of the season. This first season has eight episodes in all. New episodes will air on HBO every Sunday at 9:00 p.m. EST, and stream on HBO Max at the same time. Aaron Pierre is already set to reprise his role as John Stewart in Superman: Man of Tomorrow, which is due out in theaters on July 9, 2027. Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), another Green Lantern who first appeared in Superman, will appear in Lanterns later in the season.