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Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy has shed some additional light on his upcoming HBO series about DC Comics’ Green Lantern Corps characters Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), calling it “as much of a buddy cop show as a superhero show.” According to the series’ official logline. Lanterns “follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.” “Our show is in a lot of ways about replacement—when should someone step aside and when is it time for the next person to take the reins?,” Mundy revealed in a new Men’s Health profile of rising star Aaron Pierre. Mundy continued: “That push and pull between those two characters is really important. So much of the power that John has is by not taking the bait, understanding that you lose your power if you’re yelling and screaming. That’s what we’re trying to convey: He knows he belongs, so he doesn’t have to overcompensate. There’s a real balance there that’s just innately inside of Aaron. He’s big. He’s an intimidating presence just physically. But there’s a softness to him too. There’s a thoughtfulness. You can’t teach that.” The Lanterns showrunner added that “Aaron felt a responsibility, especially as a Black man playing this particular role, to make sure he really understood him and brought him to life. … I think fans will see the reverence he has for it, and that goes a long way.” Pierre told the magazine that, for him, John Stewart “just radiates strength and fortitude. … That hunger to be the best version of yourself, which also holds you accountable when you’re not.” Lanterns won’t be Pierre’s first brush with comic book adaptations. He was among the cast of the SyFy television series Krypton and, according to James Gunn, Pierre was up for the role of Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Then at one point in the movie’s tortured production history, Pierre was cast in Marvel’s Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali. That project and his participation in it eventually fell apart, something that still disappoints the English actor. “I remember being cast in Blade and feeling elated. But something I learned during that time was that until you step foot on the set, you haven’t commenced work,” Pierre told Men’s Health. “It just took a different creative direction, and I was no longer a part of it. You have to accept that.” Lanterns will premiere on HBO sometime next year.
