Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge) has been tapped to star in Lanterns, HBO‘s high-profile series based on the Green Lantern DC comic. He is set to play John Stewart opposite Hal Jordan, a role Kyle Chandler has been in negotiations for and expected to close.

Pierre landed the John Stewart part after an extensive search. As Deadline reported two weeks ago, in the process’ final stages, he had emerged as a frontrunner alongside Stephen James.

The series from Ozark’s Chris Mundy, Watchmen‘s Damon Lindelof and comic book writer Tom King follows new recruit John Stewart (Pierre) and Lantern legend Jordan (Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.

The eight-episode Lanterns is produced by HBO in association with Warner Bros Television and DC Studios. Mundy, who will serve as showrunner, Lindelof and King are co-writing and executive producing. James Hawes will direct the first two episodes and also will exec produce.

Pierre leads the cast of Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge, which has been the #1 movie on Netflix for three weeks, and next voices the titular character of Mufasa in Barry Jenkins’ animated Lion King prequel for Disney. Currently filming Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, Pierre recently starred as Malcolm X in the NatGeo series Genius: MLK/X. His credits also include Garth Davis’ Foe alongside Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan, Clement Virgo’s Brother and Jenkins’ limited series The Underground Railroad. He is repped by WME, Anonymous Content, Hamilton Hodell and Sloane Offer Weber Dern.

From Deadline.com