If you haven’t heard of Aaron Pierre before, then you soon will. The actor is having a breakout year in 2024, and now he has landed the role of Green Lantern John Stewart in HBO’s upcoming series Lanterns. Pierre is 30 years old, but he’s only appeared in 10 films or TV shows prior to this month. He also has some very high-profile projects coming up, including the leading part in Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, as well as a role in Apple TV+’s The Morning Show season 4.
To bring you up to speed on this actor on the rise, we’ve put together a list of five great movies and TV shows starring Pierre that you should watch. And the first thing that comes up is Pierre’s initial brush with the DC universe in a Superman prequel series that originally ran on Syfy.
Krypton (2018)
Krypton didn’t have a large audience during its two-season run on Syfy, but it did find clever ways to incorporate Superman’s mythology into the storyline. Pierre played Dev-Em, a character who is traditionally a villain in the comics. Dev-Em was more nuanced on the show, even though he was a rival to the main character — and Superman’s grandfather — Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), over their mutual love for Lyta-Zod (Barbarian‘s Georgina Campbell).
Seg-El and Dev-Em occasionally had overlapping goals, but the latter was unaware that Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) had traveled to Krypton’s past to warn Seg that someone was attempting to write the Man of Steel out of history. The show came to an end before these plotlines could be resolved, but Krypton currently has a streaming home on Tubi.
Watch Krypton on Tubi.
The Underground Railroad (2021)
The Underground Railroad is an actual railroad passage to freedom in Mufasa director Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel. Pierre plays a runaway slave named Caesar Garner, who escapes alongside his lover and fellow slave, Cora Randall (Thuso Mbedu). Meanwhile, a slave catcher, Arnold Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton), is obsessed with bringing them back in chains.
This miniseries is Cora’s story more than its Caesar’s tale, so he takes a backseat to her. But during the time that he has one the show, Pierre makes the most of it.
Watch The Underground Railroad on Prime Video.
Foe (2023)
Pierre has a very large role as Terrance in Foe, a sci-fi flick based on Iain Reid’s novel. In the future, Terrance is sent to visit a farming couple, Junior (Gladiator 2‘s Paul Mescal) and Hen (The Outrun‘s Saoirse Ronan), with an offer of a lifetime … for Junior. He gets a chance to live and work in an orbital space station for two years, but Hen has to stay behind. However, Terrance promises that Hen will be protected and accompanied by an android duplicate of Junior while he is away.
Terrance asks a lot of probing questions to get enough info about Junior, who quickly comes to resent him. In fact, Junior is very suspicious about Terrance’s intentions, and comes to believe that he wants Hen for himself.
Watch Foe on Prime Video.
Genius: MLK/X (2024)
This is a case of bad timing and bad decisions by Disney, which recently scrubbed Genius: MLK/X from Hulu and Disney+ as a cost-cutting measure. You’d think that CEO Robert Iger would have learned by now that no one should ever go the full David Zaslav. Because of this decision, Disney isn’t properly equipped to capitalize on Pierre’s newfound notoriety with one of his best performances to date.
Genius: MLK/X follows the parallel stories of Malcolm X (Pierre) and Martin Luther King Jr. (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). While their lives do intersect at times, these two civil rights icons are not on the same page.
Rent or buy Genius: MLK/X on Prime Video.
Rebel Ridge (2024)
Rebel Ridge is the Netflix original movie that made Pierre into an action star earlier this summer. The ironic thing is that he wasn’t even the original choice to headline the film. This was John Boyega’s movie until he pulled out of the project, which paved the way for Pierre to star as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who is the absolute wrong guy to mess with.
Yet the corrupt cops of Shelby Springs can’t resist using civil forfeiture to steal Terry’s hard-earned cash savings … simply because they can. Terry explains to Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson) that he needs that money to get his cousin, Mike Simmons (CJ LeBlanc), out of prison so they can make a fresh start. When Burnne reneges on a deal to return some of Terry’s money for that purpose, he’s forced to take matters into his own hands. And these dirty cops are going to regret the day they crossed Terry.
Watch Rebel Ridge on Netflix.
