TV SPECIAL
Luke Cage returns, and the bulletproof hero is coming out fighting. total film meets showrunner cheo hodari coker and star mike colter to talk new season challenges.
Luke Cage heads up our small-screen spesh, which also looks at Sharp Objects, Cloak & Dagger and Alan Partridge’s big comeback.
When the first season of
Luke Cage dropped on Netflix back in September 2016, the streaming service went offline for an afternoon. Sweet Christmas, as Cage might say: this was no mere technical glitch. “We’re known as the show that crashed Netflix,” beams Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker. The first black superhero to have his own solo television series, at least since 1994’s little-seen MANTIS, Marvel’s bulletproof Harlem resident disproved “the myth that ‘black content’ doesn’t travel”.
Fast-forward 18 months, and the landscape has changed dramatically. Ryan Coogler’s MCU title Black Panther stormed the box office with a $1.3 billion haul. And on the small screen, DC’s Black Lightning aired to critical acclaim. “It used to be you’d only get one black superhero for a decade,” says Coker. “Now you’ve got three different franchises, and we have the diversity in superheroes that we’ve always had in hip hop.”
It can only be a good thing – for comic-book fans and for representation on screens. But being the first sure heaped expectations on the character the original comics dubbed ‘Power Man’. “Ultimately, we were the guinea pigs,” says star Mike Colter, who was first introduced as Cage in fellow Marvel show Jessica Jones.
“I think there was a lot of pressure.” But if the groundwork was admirably laid, now comes the real battle: Season 2.
bad guy blues
Critics were lukewarm to the second half of Coker’s first series after the surprise death of Cage rival, gangster Cornell ‘Cottonmouth’ Stokes (Moonlight’s Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali). The arrival of mega-villain arms dealer Diamondback (Erik LaRay Harvey) in his wake left many cold. “It was always my plan to kill Cottonmouth in the middle of the season,” argues Coker. “It wasn’t a mistake. What few people understand is that Mahershala wouldn’t have taken the role if it wasn’t limited [to seven episodes].”
Subsequently coming off the back of his appearance in The Defenders – 2017’s eightepisode miniseries that saw Cage team up with the other Marvel television heroes: Jessica Jones, Daredevil and Iron Fist – Season 2 feels like a fresh slate. Cage is back in Harlem after his spell in jail following revelations of his pre-Cage identity: escaped convict Carl Lucas. Once again, he’s in the orbit of Misty Knight (Simone Missick), the now one-armed detective who was on Cottonmouth’s trail.
His celebrity, meanwhile, has spread: everything from Luke Cage t-shirts (styled like the Run DMC logo) to illegal narcotics embossed with his name are hitting the streets. It all has a particular impact on his relationship with love interest Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson). “Fame can change people,” says Colter. “Claire is a no-nonsense girl, so she’s not going to put up with a lot.” Arguments soon flare. “It’s that kind of drama that you just do not expect to see in a comic-book TV show,” says Coker.
As Claire tells Cage in the season opener: “Nobody knows if you’re a cop, a hero or a vigilante.” The man with the unbreakable skin needs to get introspective. “This season,” says Colter, “is about some difficulties with Luke trying to figure out who he is, what this means, and how can he accomplish what he wants and still be, for lack of a better term, a hero in people’s eyes. It’s hard to be a good guy all the time, especially when you’re dealing with criminals who aren’t playing by the rules.”
snakes and ladders
Ah, yes. The criminals. Whatever your feelings towards Cottonmouth and Diamondback, Luke Cage S2 has got a surprise coming: Bushmaster. Played with real charisma by Mustafa Shakir, the Jamaican-born felon is similarly bulletproof and utterly relentless. Slamming up against Cage, he’s also gunning for Cottonmouth’s cousin and corrupt New York politician Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard). “People aren’t ready for Bushmaster!” chuckles Coker. “What is so great is that they have no idea what is coming.”
Then there’s Rosalie Carbone (Annabella Sciorra), a Harlem mafia princess that Coker compares to Sciorra’s own Gloria Trillo from The Sopranos. “She’s a villain of a different sort,” adds Colter. “Luke is a gentleman. He’s not going [to] walk up and just break her neck! That’s never been the way he functions. She is a formidable character but she’s also not a supervillain. She has no powers. So he has to figure out a way to deal with her in a different way and it’s a mindgame in a way.”
In Coker’s eyes, it was the chance to draw from New York’s own crime legacy. “The reason that Luke Cage villains are different to other villains… I always base them a little bit on the reality of New York. So Cottonmouth has a little bit of Nicky Barnes, a little of Frank Lucas. But at the same time has the aspirations of a legitimate politician. So bringing Annabelle to the game I think is interesting. It also gives us interesting possibilities if we – knock on wood – have another season.”
Right now, Luke Cage Season 3 and a second season of The Defenders have yet to be confirmed. But what about Heroes For Hire? Back in the Marvel comics, Cage and Iron Fist – aka Danny Rand – banded together to start their own business. Coker is seemingly paving the way in this season of Luke Cage, with an appearance by Iron Fist star Finn Jones. “When you get to episode 10, we’ve got this team up with Luke and Iron Fist that gives Iron Fist his swagger back!” he grins. “I think it gives fans the Iron Fist they thought they were going to see.”
Then there’s the storming soundtrack – from Jamaican reggae to Wu-Tang’s Ghostface Killah – that really gives Coker’s show its mojo. Will the fans dig Season 2? He shrugs. “There are people that love Luke Cage and there are people that hate Luke Cage, and are very vocal about how much they don’t like the show. But I can’t go into a corner and cry about it. The only thing we can do is make the best possible show the best way we can.”
‘luke is a gentleman. he’s not going to walk up and break her neck!’ mike colter