‘Lanterns’ Stars Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre Break Down HBO Drama’s Grounded Approach

Every Green Lantern fan knows that you don’t choose the ring. The ring chooses you. To wield that ring, to become a Green Lantern, you must be someone with an incredible amount of willpower. You also need the ability to overcome great fear. That second one might come in handy if you’re Kyle Chandler or Aaron Pierre, two actors who, in “Lanterns,” are taking on iconic characters who have been around for more than 50 years in a radical new HBO adaptation. “It wasn’t intimidating until somebody said, ‘You better not screw this up. You’re going to get a lot of hate mail,’” Chandler told TheWrap with a laugh before the premiere of “Lanterns.” “I’m not a social media fella, you know? I’m a bit of a luddite, so I don’t see all that. People don’t usually share it with me unless they’re my enemies. But you want to do good, and you want to respect what the show is all about.” I didn’t even finish asking if they had some fear in taking on the roles before Pierre responded, “100%.” The duo stars in the new HBO series as Hal Jordan (Chandler) and John Stewart (Pierre), two of the most notable characters to take on the Green Lantern mantle (a mantle that’s currently shared by about eight Earth-based heroes and thousands of intergalactic lawmen in DC Comics). At 60 years old and with a slew of all-star credits, Chandler is only now donning any sort of superhero suit for the first time — albeit in a more grounded take than your average Green Lantern story. “We have the people who created the show to guide us in that direction. Tom King is very well adept at comics. They didn’t let us go far, and they answered every question we had,” Chandler said. “When people see the show, they’ll see how the show is about people. It’s a little bit different from what they may see. It’s ground-based, it’s emotional-based. It’s like that. The space travel and what goes on with that, there’s plenty of that. There’s lots of action, there’s lots of everything. But at the heart of it, it’s these two guys right here.” HBO/DC Taking the oath The characters of Hal Jordan and John Stewart have been pulling off superheroics for decades on the pages of DC Comics, with the former debuting in John Broome and Gil Kane’s “Showcase #22” in 1959 and the latter debuting in Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams’ “Green Lantern #87” in 1971. “Lanterns” sees these spacefaring lawmen pulled down to Earth, introducing them to James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU in a Nebraska-set mystery with intergalactic ramifications. Pierre has occupied this kind of world before, with one of his earliest roles being the lesser-known Kryptonian Dev-Em on Syfy’s “Krypton.” But while a couple of actors have taken on the role of Hal Jordan before Chandler, “Lanterns” marks the first appearance of John Stewart in live action. He is already slated to reprise the role in “Man of Tomorrow,” Gunn’s follow-up to last summer’s “Superman” (which debuted Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, another Green Lantern who will appear in “Lanterns”). It’s a part that has already earned Pierre rave reviews — and a responsibility he takes incredibly seriously. “I just want to say an enormous thank you to all of those who have been pouring love on me and sharing their joy of me being part of this journey. And I’ve been reciprocating that, you know? I’m so grateful to be collaborating with all of these wonderful individuals,” Pierre told TheWrap on the “Lanterns” premiere red carpet. “Everybody is not only exceptionally talented, but they are beautiful human beings with clean hearts, and that is exactly what you dream of every time you collaborate and you embark on a journey for any project.” One of those collaborators is Chris Mundy, who created “Lanterns” alongside Damon Lindelof and Tom King. According to Mundy, Pierre was turning heads as John Stewart before he even fully got the part. “Around the time of ‘Rebel Ridge,’ I still remember Damon and I met him on the Warner Bros. lot, and we were walking from there, just the three of us walking back to our writers office, and there’s tour busses going around Warner Bros. all the time. All these heads just kept turning, and I’m like, ‘They’ve either seen ‘Rebel Ridge,’ which is possible, or Aaron is just one of those people that you just look at.’ Both things are probably true at the same time with that,” Mundy told TheWrap. “Even in stillness, because that character, there’s the marine quality of John, but then there’s also the artist side of him. It’s different kinds of stillness, and even with that, you’re just drawn to him immediately.” Chandler, meanwhile, is just as strong a fit for his character — a swaggering, bravado-filled charmer calling himself “fearless” to hide a deeper pain underneath. “Kyle just embodies everything we were talking about,” Mundy said. “This likable swagger, and even when he’s being kind of a jerk, there’s something about it that you can’t help being drawn to — and he knows it.” Aaron Pierre as John Stewart and Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan in “Lanterns” (HBO Max) Don’t be afraid “Lanterns” opens with a scene of a young John Stewart, decades away from seeing a Green Lantern ring up close, watching Hal Jordan reveal his identity to the world on “60 Minutes.” When Hal is asked how one becomes a Green Lantern, he says that the audition process is a test with one question: “Are you afraid?” “Every kid’s worst fear: losing a parent. Once that happens, there is nothing to fear anymore,” he continues, referencing Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver’s seminal Hal Jordan text, “Green Lantern: Rebirth.” But Chandler and Pierre don’t view their characters so didactically. Both actors know that the true ability of a Green Lantern is not being fearless, but being able to overcome great fear. “He’s a purely human character. He’s been given this, he’s been gifted — not gifted, chosen — to take this incredible tool and overcome those fears and yet still get the job done,” Chandler said. “I’m into stoicism. I enjoy Ryan Holiday’s books. One I’m reading at the moment is ‘The Obstacle Is the Way,’ and I think something that is really interesting that I read that relates to stoicism is, ‘For someone to be in the freezing cold and just say, ‘I’m not cold,’ is less impressive than someone saying, ‘I’m freezing, but I’m sitting in it regardless,’’” Pierre added. “I think that’s what we’re speaking about here, you know? Feeling it, but overcoming it and besting it — mastering it.” “I was just kidding. My character’s fearless,” Chandler chimed in, getting a big laugh from his co-star. “That’s why I was chosen. He wasn’t chosen.” “I’m not sure you’ve watched the series,” Pierre retorted. “You’ll have to watch it again.” This exchange exemplifies the Hal/John dynamic seen throughout “Lanterns”: the hotshot vs. the soldier, the past vs. the future, the quarterback with everything to lose vs. the backup with everything to prove. With only one Green Lantern ring to go around, it’s an adversarial dynamic, one reflective of the earliest days of Hal Jordan and John Stewart on the page. When asked if they were anything like this in real life, Chandler and Pierre answered in unison. “I can’t get out of here soon enough, brother, speaking quite honestly,” Pierre said. “I can’t stand him,” Chandler agreed. “We really despise each other.” As Chandler maintained his expression, Pierre broke from the bit, speaking about their relationship with a big smile. The “Lanterns” lead said he and Chandler would bicker in much the same way on set, going “on and on and on” over the six-month shoot. When he would ask crew members if they were “sick of Kyle and I,” he would always get one response: “Absolutely not.” And fans of “Lanterns” won’t be either. “It’s not a given, nor is it mandatory to develop a friendship with a colleague, a collaborator, no matter how long or extensive the job is. It’s a gift when you experience it. Kyle and I had never met each other before our first meeting, and neither of us knew what we were walking into,” Pierre said. “When we met for the first time, it was I think a relief for both of us, and a feeling of being energized and excited about developing this friendship that we now have.” “Lanterns” airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.