Luke Cage Star Mike Colter Says He’s Not Discussed Marvel Return

With Marvel Studios set to kick off Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021, fans can expect to see a lot of familiar faces and surprising returns in movies and shows like WandaVision, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Loki, and more. And while Spider-Man 3 is rumored to bring back many surprising faces throughout the history of Marvel’s various franchises and reboots, including Charlie Cox as the star of Marvel’s Daredevil, another of Netflix’s Defenders is surprisingly being left out of talks for possible returns. Confirmed by actor Mike Colter, there are currently no talks for the MCU return of Luke Cage.

The star of CBS series Evil has spoken about his desire to return to play Luke Cage in a future Marvel project. Unfortunately it sounds like Charlie Cox’s fan-favorite return as Matt Murdock will be an anomaly as Feige takes full control of Marvel’s on-screen output, as Colter made it clear in an interview with ComingSoon.net that there have been no talks “whatsoever” regarding his comeback.

“I got to say, I rarely think about it in the sense of what could be or will be, I know fans are eager to see something with the character,” said Colter. “I know I established him and it was an honor to do that, but I don’t know what the future holds, I’m just in my mode of doing Evil right now and a few films on hiatus. If something happens, I’d love to have a conversation with them, but for now I’m not holding my breath, I’m happy either way, it was a good run.”

It sounds like Colter’s tone has changed from previous interview with ComicBook.com early in 2019, when he was still hopeful that he could return to play Luke Cage in a future project. That sounds entirely unlikely now.

“If I talk about it then, honestly, what’ll happen is if it gets a third season, they’ll be like, ‘You just ruined everything we were gonna write about,’” Colter previously said. “If you’re gonna keep up hope, then I have to keep the secrets. Ask me again in three years.”

However, Cox himself said that he had no talks with Marvel before he was reported to reprise his role in Spider-Man 3 alongside Tom Holland. New She-Hulk actress Tatiana Maslany vehemently denied rumors of her casting, as did Hawkeye actress Hailee Steinfeld — both of whom were just confirmed by Kevin Feige himself.

So hope is not dead for Luke Cage‘s return, but as Colter himself states, it seems unlikely at this point. For now, fans can see the actor in Evil on CBS, with the Season 2 premiere expected to come early in 2021.