Aaron Pierre (The Underground Railroad) and Stephan James (Homecoming) have emerged as top choices to star alongside Kyle Chandler in Lanterns, HBO‘s high-profile series based on the Green Lantern DC comic, Deadline has learned. The duo are in conversations to play John Stewart opposite Chandler’s Hal Jordan through sources caution that no offers have made. A rep for HBO declined comment.

The rumor mill went into overdrive this week as the lengthy search for an actor to play John Stewart entered its final stages, with Pierre, James’ names, as well asSnowfall‘s Damson Idris, all in the mix at some point.

The series from Ozark’s Chris Mundy, Watchmen‘s Damon Lindelof and comic book writer Tom King follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Jordan, 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. The project, which received a straight-to-series order in June, marks one of the first titles to come out of the revamped DC Studios.

“John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with Superman,” DC Studios co-chairmen and co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran said at the time of the series announcement.

Pierre recently played Malcolm X in Nat Geo’s Genius: MLK/X and next voices the title character in Mufasa: The Lion King.

James, a Golden Globe nominee for Homecoming and Emmy nominee for #FreeRayshawn, is coming off a starring role in Beacon 23. On the feature side, he will next be seen in The Piano Lesson and is currently filming War Machine.

From Deadline.com