Aaron Pierre will soon be seen as a live-action version of DC hero John Stewart in HBO’s upcoming series Lanterns. He recently admitted he’s never watched the most famous (or infamous, rather) live-action take on the Green Lantern comics—the 2011 Ryan Reynolds film—but instead had a much, much better page-to-screen introduction to the character: the ’00s Justice League cartoons.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly ahead of his next big-screen project—he voices the title character in upcoming Lion King prequel Mufasa—Pierre straight-up said “I haven’t seen that” when asked about the 2011 feature, a critical miss that found later purpose thanks to Reynolds’ good-natured use of it as Deadpool-adjacent joke fodder. However, he told EW he does plan to watch it while doing his Lanterns prep work.
However, he’s already thoroughly schooled in another depiction of the Green Lantern world. “Justice League Unlimited might have been one of my first introductions to John Stewart,” he explained. Cartoon Network series Justice League ran from 2001-2004 and featured legendary voice actor Kevin Conroy reprising his iconic Batman: The Animated Series version of Batman—as well as Phil LaMarr, another voice-acting legend (Futurama, Samurai Jack), as John Stewart. Conroy and LaMarr also starred in the Justice League follow-up series Justice League Unlimited, which ran from 2004-2006… right around when Pierre was 10 to 12 years old. Perfect timing.
Pierre’s Stewart will work with veteran Green Lantern Corps member Hal Jordan on Lanterns—that’s the version of the character Reynolds played, with Kyle Chandler playing him on the HBO series. Though Lanterns casting for both characters grabbed a lot of headlines (remember when Josh Brolin turned down the Jordan role?), Pierre told EW he wasn’t really aware of the media frenzy.
“I was just locked into giving the very best version that I could of this beautiful character in the rigorous audition process,” he explained. “I’m a firm believer that what’s meant for you won’t miss you. So, I gave my best and then set it free. Now I’ve been gifted the opportunity to bring this beautiful character to life and, hopefully, I serve John Stewart. Hopefully, I serve the Green Lantern Corps. We’re just really excited for the people to see what we put together here.”
Lanterns does not yet have a release date, but look for it either later next year or sometime in 2026.
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