Green Lantern HBO Show Makes Rebel Ridge Star Its John Stewart

HBO’s Green Lantern show has cast its John Stewart. Aaron Pierre, the retired Marine seeking justice in Netflix’s Rebel Ridge, will star in Lanterns alongside Friday Night Lights coach Kyle Chandler as the comic book detective show begins to take shape.

DC Studios head James Gunn confirmed the news on social media today, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, the final choice came down to Pierre and Stephan James, who previously starred in The Piano Lesson and Race. “Welcome to DC, Aaron Pierre,” Gunn wrote. “After a long and grueling series of auditions I am absolutely sure we’ve found an incredible John Stewart.”

Lanterns is reported to by a gritty murder mystery in the vein of HBO’s hit anthology series True Detective. The initial premise at least appears to revolve around Chandler as an older, grumpier Hal Jordan training up Pierre’s Stewart as his replacement Green Lantern while the two try to unravel the conspiracy behind a grizzly murder.

A Green Lantern show might have previously seemed like an awkward fit for TV, especially coming off of DC’s incredibly spotty record on the big screen. But The Penguin has somehow managed to take Colin Farrell’s riff on the Gotham supervillain and turn it into a compelling show about warring crime bosses and underworld politics.

Pierre also seems like a great fit coming off of Rebel Ridge, a revenge flick about corrupt cops in Louisiana that started streaming on Netflix last month and which co-stars Don Johnson of Miami Vice and more recently, HBO’s previous DC adaptation, Watchmen. It’s a great movie with strong performances in which Pierre still manages to stand out as a rising action star. He also plays Mufasa in the upcoming Lion King prequel.

Lanterns still doesn’t have a release date but it’s expected to hopefully begin filming as early as next year.