The fate of Lanterns season 2, and the DC Universe in general, has never been murkier. With the sudden ousting of DC Studios’ co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran, the status of HBO’s hit series about two mismatched Green Lanterns who get paired together to solve an intergalactic mystery is up in the air like never before. Season 1 was a critical hit that captured the zeitgeist, and Lanterns co-creator Chris Mundy had already assembled a season 2 writers’ room. But in a recent interview, Mundy said the odds of the series continuing were likely "50/50."
That is a disappointing development for fans who invested in the grounded, atmospheric take on the classic DC Comics property. Thankfully, however, there is a perfect replacement waiting in the wings that flips the Lanterns formula on its head—and it features an almost unlimited supply of episodes. That show is The X-Files, and even though it also features aliens and a pair of odd-couple investigators, it couldn’t be more different in execution and scope.
Lanterns was a bold new take on DC Comics’ various Green Lantern heroes. While the character has most often been associated with grand, operatic space adventures, Lanterns was a grittier, more grounded affair. Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) is the cocky, go-with-your-gut veteran superhero who was selected to be Earth’s first Green Lantern, part of a universal protection force whose members use powerful green rings that can generate pretty much whatever the wearer can imagine out of green light.
Tired of Jordan’s rule-breaking behavior, the Guardians—the alien beings who oversee the Green Lantern Corps—select serious-minded ex-Marine John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) to become Hal’s partner, which is really just a ruse to have Stewart eventually replace Jordan altogether. Together, the two investigate a deadly incident in the small town of Rushville, Nebraska, grounding a cosmic mythology into a dark mystery thriller.
The X-Files also starts out with a bit of a corporate and bureaucratic ruse within a major agency. The show follows a pair of FBI agents who investigate cases involving paranormal phenomena. These unexplained cases are referred to as "the X-Files" and have become the sole obsession of Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), an investigator who harbors a fierce and unwavering belief in aliens and other supernatural elements. Prior to the events of the series, Mulder had been a hotshot criminal profiler in the FBI, and the higher-ups at the agency are now looking to bring him back into the fold by giving him a partner whose explicit job is to debunk his work on the X-Files. They select Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), a trained medical doctor who believes strictly in hard science and is wildly skeptical about the wilder, unexplainable elements of Mulder’s work.
For both Lanterns and The X-Files—and practically all media featuring mismatched law enforcement partners—the two protagonists gradually gain a begrudging respect for each other. In Lanterns, Jordan and Stewart come to admire one another’s bravery and sense of honor despite their contrasting worldviews. On The X-Files, Mulder learns to appreciate the tough, scientific questions Scully asks, while Scully comes to realize that Mulder’s theories and beliefs aren’t quite as baseless as she had originally thought. Mulder and Scully also develop a complex romantic relationship over time, but that takes several seasons to come to fruition and is developed organically across the long run of the series.
The X-Files is a totally different experience
While there are striking thematic similarities between the two shows regarding partnership and the unknown, they offer vastly different viewing experiences. Lanterns consists of just eight tightly serialized episodes, all dedicated to one singular, overarching case. In contrast, The X-Files ran for 11 seasons, totaling 218 episodes. While the show features a sprawling central alien mythology that extends throughout the entire series, the vast majority of episodes are procedural in nature, presenting new standalone cases every single week.
The series also covers a remarkably wide variety of subject matter. Sometimes the narrative focuses on alien abductions and government conspiracies, while other episodes deal with ghosts, urban legends, cryptids, or elements of the occult. There is even an infamous episode where Mulder is seduced by a vampire, though viewers are often advised to skip that particular installment.
The X-Files also possesses a very different tonal palette. While Lanterns has a consistent, heavy moodiness inspired by prestige crime dramas like True Detective, The X-Files embraced immense tonal variety from week to week. The show could be deadly serious and terrifying in one episode, then lean into an action-thriller vibe for the next, or even pivot into clever, self-aware comedy. This genre-hopping works seamlessly thanks to the undeniable chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson. As wild, bizarre, or heavy as individual storylines get, their partnership serves as the show’s emotional anchor, explaining why it lasted for over a decade and became a massive cultural phenomenon in the 1990s.
In a way, The X-Files acts as an inverted mirror of Lanterns. With The X-Files, the human FBI agents are the most grounded, rational element of the show, while the cases themselves are outlandish and supernatural. In Lanterns, the Green Lanterns and their cosmic power sets are the most fantastic, unbelievable elements, whereas the human investigation itself is kept surprisingly low to the ground.
Plus, there are no reality-warping power rings in The X-Files, which remains a defining cornerstone of the Lanterns mythology. For fans mourning the sudden uncertainty surrounding the future of HBO’s DC Universe series, however, diving into the extensive catalog of classic sci-fi mystery offers an expansive alternative.
All 218 episodes of The X-Files are currently available to stream on Pluto TV, Hulu, and Disney Plus.
