‘Lanterns’ Star Aaron Pierre Lands Hero Magazine Cover and Reunites With the Director Who Changed Everything

It has been a huge summer for ‘Lanterns’ star Aaron Pierre. HBO’s Green Lantern series premiered in August with Pierre as John Stewart opposite Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan, and critics have mostly loved it. As of August 21, the show held a 94% Tomatometer score from 65 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with new episodes streaming Sundays on HBO Max.

The show from creator and showrunner Chris Mundy follows 2 intergalactic cops who get pulled into a dark mystery while investigating a murder in the American heartland. For Pierre, it caps a steady rise that ran through prestige TV, a Netflix action hit, and a Disney blockbuster, turning the London-born actor into one of the most talked-about leading men of the moment.

Now Pierre has landed the cover of HERO Magazine’s Issue 36, the Ghost Story issue. The black-and-white images, shot by photographer Kaan Alexander Olcay, show Pierre in a loose shirt and white tank while holding a vintage boxing and wrestling magazine, alongside a second portrait of him in a sharp dark jacket.

The biggest draw is who’s asking the questions. Inside the issue, Pierre sits down with filmmaker Barry Jenkins for a conversation about his career, his latest work, and where he’s headed next. The cover drew attention quickly on X, where a Blackish Press post sharing the images passed 10.9K views and 1.1K likes shortly after going up.

Pierre isn’t the only star in the issue. Austin Abrams also covers the Ghost Story edition, sitting down with Zach Cregger, and George MacKay talks with Léa Seydoux about stepping into the world of ghosts.

Aaron Pierre is the new cover of HERO magazine while promoting his new series ‘LANTERNS’.

📸 Kaan Alexander Olcay pic.twitter.com/qhv2FfBYVE

— Blackish Press (@blackishpress) September 24, 2026

Having Jenkins lead the conversation is fitting, because their history goes back almost to the start of Pierre’s screen career. In 2018, Jenkins saw Pierre play Cassio in a production of ‘Othello’ at the Globe Theatre, then messaged the young actor on Twitter. Pierre has said he first assumed someone was playing a joke on him.

That message led to Pierre’s role as Caesar in Jenkins’ Amazon Prime series ‘The Underground Railroad’, which came out in May 2021. The 2 later reunited for ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’, with Pierre voicing the young Mufasa, released in December 2024. Pierre has also said the experience with Jenkins shaped how he picks his roles, pushing him to put truth and authenticity above everything else.

That same thoroughness shows up in how Pierre talks about his DC hero. Asked how he approached the role, Pierre explained his process in an interview with IndieWire, describing it as “revising that, refining that, never being satisfied — even until the last scene that we shoot in the whole season.” He also named Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones among his personal heroes.

No evil shall escape their sight.
Watch the official trailer now. #Lanterns arrives August 16 on @hbomax. pic.twitter.com/PQdkto9G2R

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 24, 2026

The show’s third episode went deep into John’s childhood, showing how his parents pushed him to be fearless from a young age after John Stewart Sr. failed his own Green Lantern test. “It was a gift to have the opportunity to explore each of these characters with such enormous depth,” Pierre told Variety about filming that episode.

The HERO spread is part of a busy run of magazine attention for Pierre. He covered the November/December 2025 issue of Men’s Health ahead of ‘Lanterns’, and he recently fronted Boss’ fall/winter campaign, shot across his hometown of London.

His list of upcoming projects keeps growing too. Beyond his DC work, he has ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ in the pipeline, and he was announced alongside Margaret Qualley and Patrick Schwarzenegger for Amazon MGM Studios’ ‘Love of Your Life’.

For a performer once told he was too tall to convincingly show emotion on screen, a cover conversation with the director who gave him his big break feels like a meaningful full-circle moment. Given how much of Pierre’s story runs through Jenkins, fans will likely be eager to read what the 2 had to say once the full issue arrives.

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