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HBO’s upcoming Lanterns — the first new live-action series from DC Studios, and based on DC’s long-lived Green Lantern comic book franchise — is continuing to gain momentum as it gets closer to the start of production. Just a couple of weeks after the show brought Friday Night Lights’ Kyle Chandler onboard to play Hal Jordan, it’s been revealed that Rebel Ridge star Aaron Pierre has signed on to play John Stewart, Jordan’s partner and the show’s co-lead character.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news, Pierre was one of two frontrunners for the role in recent weeks, with Stephan James — who’d previously played Jesse Owens in 2016 biopic Race — his competitor. A decision was made earlier this week, following screen tests with Chandler last week, according to the trade paper.

This won’t be Pierre’s first comic book inspired work; he appeared in 2021’s Old, an M. Night Shyamalan movie that was adapted from the European graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters. He was also, for a brief minute, part of the troubled Blade remake at Marvel Studios, although his involvement with that project ended when it went through one of its apparent recurring reimaginings.

In Lanterns — co-created by Lost’s Damon Lindelof, comic book writer Tom King, and Ozark’s Chris Mundy, with the latter showrunning the first season — Stewart will be a younger member of the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps, mentored by the veteran Jordan. The series has been likened to HBO’s detective series True Detective in tone, and will have its first two episodes directed by James Hawes, who’s recently gained attention for his work on Apple TV+’s acclaimed Slow Horses.

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