Aaron Pierre Cast as Green Lantern John Stewart in Lanterns
Another member of the Green Lantern Corps. – and James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU – has been cast. According to Deadline, Aaron Pierre will play John Stewart, one of the two Green Lanterns headlining the upcoming HBO series Lanterns. If current negotiations are successful, which Deadline says they’re expected to be, Pierre will star opposite Kyle Chandler, who is set to portray another Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, most recently played by Ryan Reynolds in the film Green Lantern. A third Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, will appear in James Gunn’s Superman, where he will be played by Nathan Fillion, and I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more Lanterns popping up in the DCU. Deadline has a bit more on Lanterns, which is being produced by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King: John Stewart and Hal Jordan will be investigating “a murder in the American heartland.” James Gunn later confirmed the casting on X:
Welcome to DC, Aaron Pierre. After a long and grueling series of auditions I am absolutely sure we’ve found an incredible John Stewart. #Lanterns pic.twitter.com/1grFjppkQe
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) October 9, 2024
I’ll be honest; I’d never heard of Aaron Pierre before I read this news. I looked up his IMDb page, and sure enough, I haven’t seen anything in which he’s appeared – and since his only other upcoming projects are Mufasa: The Lion King and that Jennifer Aniston show on Apple TV+, it’s a safe bet that Lanterns will be the first thing I see him in. And that’s cool; if he’s good in the part, I’ll associate him entirely with John Stewart, which can only help the show. (See Jackman, Hugh.) Gunn says that this was a “long and grueling” audition process, which Deadline also reported, adding that the finalists were Pierre and Stephan James (whom I also haven’t seen in anything). I’m glad Gunn, Safran, and the rest at DC Studios are taking the casting process so seriously; I want to love all of these films and shows and have a great DC Universe to compete with – or, let’s be real nowadays, take the place of – the MCU. I have doubts, as I’m sure many people do, but I’m rooting for this to succeed. I’m also very interested in seeing who Gunn and Safran recruit to play some of the other DC heavy hitters.
As for Lanterns, I’m interested, but more for the premise and the universe-building than the characters. I was never a big Green Lantern fan; there’s nothing particularly wrong with any of them, but it never really grabbed me as a concept. But that’s true of a lot of stuff that had great adaptations, and I like the idea of making it a small-scale mystery on Earth that has grander implications for the larger story in the DCU’s first big arc. I imagine this is mainly to keep the budget low, which makes sense considering what Superman is reported to be costing, but it can still work. The notion that something so small-scale and mundane can have an impact on a cosmic story called “Gods and Monsters” is neat, and a detective story that takes place in the heartland (albeit with two superpowered investigators) will be a nice change of pace from grand superhero adventures. It furthers the idea that these stories can be almost anything, so there’s room for variety. There’s still no word on when Lanterns will arrive on HBO, but since the cast is coming together and it’s supposed to start shooting early next year, I’d guess late 2025 or maybe 2026, which would put it after Superman. Having it be the next thing would make sense: a small, localized cop thriller after big Superman heroics. Gunn could create a nice push-and-pull rhythm that way if he continues with the pattern. I’m looking forward to seeing what Lanterns is like.
Let us know what you think of Aaron Pierre playing John Stewart in the comments!
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