Luke Cage Villains Discuss Their Roles
Luke Cage pits one of Marvel's most prominent characters of color against a variety of threats -- [...]
Luke Cage pits one of Marvel's most prominent characters of color against a variety of threats -- but some of them are more subtle than others. Some of those villains -- in the form of actresses Alfre Woodard and Mahershala Ali -- recently spoke with the press about their roles.
One of the biggest takeaways? In a show about a guy who's bulletproof and can muscle through just about anything, some of his biggest problems will be smart women.
Woodard plays Mariah Dillard in the series, a politician looking to bring change to Harlem, who is put in a difficult position by her cousin, crime boss Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes. For Woodard, the familial connection between her character and Ali's Stokes was important to have, as it added a new layer to the dynamic of a politician and a crooked businessman being partners.
"Everybody is just trying to make order of life around them, and you have partnerships, and so, and especially if you have family, everybody is going to be in it," Woodard told IGN (via Comic Book Movie). "Some of every kind of person. But by the time you discover all your differences and your different ways of approaching things, you've already been weaned together, played together, you already have relationships -- so I think it paints a very realistic picture that a politician on the up and up has in their family a successful businessman who steps in and out of the gray areas. But you don't divorce them."
Woodard's character is based on the villain Black Mariah, although very loosely -- but showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker decided that the name wouldn't be totally omitted, even though Woodard's character is, as she said, on the up-and-up. Instead, it's been worked into her backstory as a derisive schoolyard name that her cousin could call her.
While Marvel's movies have made hundreds of millions of dollars and garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews, one area where nearly everyone agrees they could improve is in the quality of their villains (Loki excluded). Series star Mahershala Ali said that Netflix has avoided this problem because episodic television gives a lot more screentime for characters besides the title lead to be explored.
"I think that the heroes themselves have pretty much stayed within a certain framework. It's the villains that have gotten more interesting. They've had to get rounded out. And you've got to understand what triggers people, what drives them," Ali told IGN. "Along with that, the worlds themselves have gotten a little bit more complicated, and somewhat of a better reflection of how we all live real life. So to me, at this point, it's about trying to make these projects gritty and have elements in them that reflect urban life in some way, shape, or form that resonate as truthful. Because people can handle it....and I think it's a positive thing, because you give yourself an opportunity to capture people who are not necessarily that invested in these types of stories."
Marvel's Luke Cage is the third Netflix series building up to the Marvel's Defenders crossover event, following Marvel's Daredevil and Marvel's Jessica Jones and ahead of Marvel's Iron Fist. Colter will star as Cage, an ex-convict who whose skin was made unbreakable by a science experiment. After his bar in Hell's Kitchen was destroyed during the events of Marvel's Jessica Jones Season 1, Cage is making his way into Harlem. He'll try to make the neighborhood a safer place while steering clear of the police himself.
Marvel's Luke Cage also stars Ali, Woodard, Simone Missick, Theo Rossi, Frank Whaley, and Sônia Braga. The series is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios and is being developed by Cheo Hodari Coker, who will also serve as showrunner.
The entire first season of Marvel's Luke Cage will be released on Netflix on September 30, 2016.