Mufasa star Aaron Pierre: meet the Londoner taking Hollywood by storm

Now there are striking actors and then there are striking actors. Some people you just see on screen and say: now, there’s a striking actor.

Aaron Pierre is one such actor, a towering 6 foot 3 figure with all the muscles and almost shockingly good looks, who has already impressed in this year’s Netfix action-thriller gem Rebel Ridge, and is now on the big screen in one of this Christmas’ most exciting blockbusters. Or at least his voice is.

He takes the lead in Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel to the legendary Disney original which is rendered in the most amazing photorealist animation.

Pierre is effectively playing the young James Earl Jones, as the musical tells the story of his young relationship with Taka (later, Scar), played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Pierre had never sung before but attended a “wonderful singing boot camp” under Lin-Manual Miranda, the acclaimed Broadway legend behind Hamilton, who also delved into films with the tunes for Moana and Encanto, including the smash hit We Don’t Talk About Bruno.

Pierre told the Independent: “My voice was doing things I never imagined it could do. I was hitting notes that I didn’t think existed for my range.”

Part of Pierre’s thrill of playing the part was to “serve and honour” James Earl Jones, who died in September this year. He told AP, “He is one of my greatest inspirations. Yes, within the context of Mufasa: The Lion King and this beautiful, beloved, cherished character that he originated, but also within the context of the entirety of his artistry... he is the top of the mountain so I hope that I was able to make him proud.”

Aaron is a 30-year-old from Croydon who is of Jamaican, Curaçaoan and Sierra Leonean descent – his striking looks, including his blue eyes, have already brought him plenty of internet attention – has had a strong stage career running in tandem with his emerging screen talents.

As a child, he attended the Croydon Young People’s Theatre and studied Performing Arts at Lewisham College before heading to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in Hammersmith.

He picked up an early part in writer David S Goyer’s Superman prequel series Krypton (2018), but back in England starting picking up acclaim for his stage work, for playing Cassio in Othello at the Globe in 2018, and then the King opposite Lenny Henry in King Hedley II at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2019. He won an Ian Charleson Award commendation for the former and was also seen in the role by Barry Jenkins, the director/writer behind Moonlight.

Jenkins gave him the role of Caesar in The Underground Railroad, based on Colson Whitehead’s book about people escaping slavery in the deep South in the 1800s, which was heavily praised when it hit Amazon Prime in 2021.

Jenkins is also the man behind the new Mufasa film and said of Pierre: “He’s very intellectually engaged, but he also looks like a superhero. And there’s a version of him that is only viewed that way. He’s always diligent about protecting against that by doing things that are maybe a bit outside the box.”

This could be seen in this year’s twisty Netflix action noir Rebel Ridge, created by Jeremy ‘Green Room’ Saulnier, where Pierre played Terry Richmond, a former Marine with some serious combat skills, trying to get his cousin released from jail after he is wrongly imprisoned by corrupt small town cop Chief Sandy Burnne, played by Don Johnson.

Pierre stepped into the role after John Boyega left the project for “family reasons”, and it’s this in particular that has created some serious buzz around Pierre. His was a star-making lead performance which showed he do action, drama and hold his own against a character-acting heavyweight like late-period Johnson.

Pierre was trained in elite soldiering and pumped up his physique for the role in a New Orleans warehouse bootcamp.

“We had firearms training there by individuals who had an elite expertise with these things,” he told the Hollywood Reporter, “We did, of course, weightlifting and we also did wrestling and boxing and sparring in that same facility. We did the bike riding in that facility. That’s where we built [Terry Richmond], at least his physical prowess. The emotional and the mental and the spiritual elements, a lot of those happened in private at midnight…”

Terry Richmond is definitely a badass but one with an emotional clout and moral code that puts him above mere ‘superhero’ appearances.

This range became further apparent in his very next role, playing Malcolm X in Genius: MLK/X which required a more intellectual approach (and the shedding of all that muscle).

The next big part for Pierre is… well, okay, it’s actually a superhero.

He has also been cast as one of the co-leads of the new DCU series, Lanterns, which is due to land in 2026.

Yes, they’re have a fresh go at the Green Lantern comics, after the notorious box office stinker, Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds.

This new one looks promising though, with new DCU boss James Gunn promising “an HBO series…it’s not in outer space with a thousand Lanterns and all that stuff”.

The rumours are it’s going to be like True Detective, with two Green Lanterns investigating a mystery on Earth; Pierre plays Green Lantern John Stewart – who was one of the first African-American heroes in DC comics and modelled on Sidney Poitier) – opposite Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan.

Pierre says he hasn’t watched Reynolds’ film but was a fan of Justice League Unlimited (2004-06), the animated series which featured John Stewart.

He told Entertainment Weekly: “I’m a firm believer that what’s meant for you won’t miss you. So I gave my best [in the audition process] and then set it free. Now I’ve been gifted the opportunity to bring this beautiful character to life and, hopefully, I serve John Stewart.”

This is Croydon kid who is certain to be a future star, with all the physical attributes and acting clout required. Along with a certain mindset that you feel will take him far.

As he put it in the Independent: “I want to always feel like I’m growing, like I’m shifting the needle. I never want to feel stagnant. I never want to feel comfortable.”