The first season of the American streaming television series Luke Cage, which is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, follows Luke Cage, a former convict with superhuman strength and unbreakable skin who fights crime in Harlem, New York. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films and other television series of the franchise. The season was produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios, with Cheo Hodari Coker serving as showrunner.
Mike Colter stars as Cage, reprising his role from the series Jessica Jones. He is joined by principal cast members Mahershala Ali, Simone Missick, Theo Rossi, Erik LaRay Harvey, Rosario Dawson, and Alfre Woodard. Luke Cage entered development in late 2013, and Colter was cast, to appear in Jessica Jones and star in Luke Cage, in December 2014. Production took place in New York City from September 2015 to March 2016, with the season exploring race and politics while looking to replicate the atmosphere and culture of Harlem. Coker especially emphasized the use of music: Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad composed a 90s hip-hop" score; various artists give onscreen performances in the fictional nightclub Harlem's Paradise throughout the season; and each episode is named after a Gang Starr song. Visual effects, including for the depiction of Cage's abilities, were provided by FuseFX.
The first two episodes of the season premiered in Harlem on September 28, 2016, with the full season of 13 episodes released on Netflix on September 30 to an estimated high viewership—it was believed to become the fourth most-viewed season on Netflix within 30 days of its release—and positive reviews, particularly for the first 7 episodes. Critics praised the cast, especially the performances of Ali and Woodard, as well as the music and general style. Its pacing and some writing were viewed as some of the season's shortcomings. The series' approach to racial issues was discussed by many commentators. The season won several awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award. A second season of Luke Cage was ordered on December 3, 2016.
Episodes
Cast and characters
Main
Mike Colter as Luke Cage Mahershala Ali as Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes Simone Missick as Misty Knight Theo Rossi as Hernan "Shades" Alvarez Erik LaRay Harvey as Willis Stryker / Diamondback Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple Alfre Woodard as Mariah Dillard
Recurring
Frank Whaley as Rafael Scarfe Ron Cephas Jones as Bobby Fish Jacob Vargas as Domingo Colon Darius Kaleb as Lonnie Wilson Jade Wu as Connie Lin Deborah Ayorinde as Candace Miller Justin Swain as Mark Bailey Jaiden Kaine as Zip Sean Ringgold as Sugar Dawn-Lyen Gardner as Megan McLaren Jeremiah Richard Craft as D. W. Griffith Michael Kostroff as Noah Burstein Tijuana Ricks as Thembi Wallace John Clarence Stewart as Alex Wesley Karen Pittman as Priscilla Ridley
Notable guests
Parisa Fitz-Henley as Reva Connors Rob Morgan as Turk Barrett Rachael Taylor as the voice of Trish Walker Danny Johnson as Benjamin Donovan Stephen Rider as Blake Tower
Production Development
In October 2013, Marvel and Disney announced that Marvel Television and ABC Studios would provide Netflix with live action series centered around Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage, leading up to a miniseries based on the Defenders. In December 2014, Mike Colter was cast as Cage, which was envisioned as a recurring role in the first season of Marvel's Netflix television series Jessica Jones (2015) before headlining his own series. Netflix and Marvel announced that Cheo Hodari Coker would be the showrunner for Marvel's Luke Cage in late March 2015, after he pitched the series to Netflix as an examination of Harlem, "like what The Wire did for Baltimore." The season consists of 13 hour-long episodes.
Writing Each episode of the season is named after a Gang Starr song, with Coker wanting the full season to feel like an album of music, explaining, "When Prince put out an album, you would shut things out and listen to the whole thing" similarly to modern binge-watching of television series. Coker was inspired to name the episodes based on music by television producer Shonda Rhimes, who names each episode of Grey's Anatomy after a pop song. Coker chose the Gang Starr songs ahead of his first pitch meeting with Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb, to help organize his planned story arcs. He chose the songs based on their titles only, so each episode's events does not necessarily reflect the respective song's lyrics.
Loeb described the season as "a fugitive story", and "a story of redemption", and said it was about Luke Cage's "story and where he came from and, most importantly, where he's going" after telling an "early part of the middle" of his story on Jessica Jones. Colter noted that the series uses flashbacks to tell elements of the story like the previous Marvel Netflix shows. Coker described the series as "a powerful fusion of dark drama, hip-hop, and classic superhero action" and The Wire of Marvel Television. More specifically, Coker felt the season was a hip-hop Western, comparing it to Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of films, with Cage the Man with No Name coming to a town, Harlem, where he is convinced to fight injustice. Coker further compared the characters Cottonmouth and Misty Knight to the resident villain and local law enforcement, respectively, of the Western genre, and described the Harlem's Paradise nightclub as the town's saloon.
The season picks up "a few months" after Jessica Jones, with Luke Cage trying to stay off the radar. The end of the second episode "get[s] this series into forward action mode [by making Cage] see that he couldn't just sit back and do nothing." Coker said the arc for Cage in the season was "hero", and felt this was a more natural way of introducing the character than telling a traditional origin story as other Marvel properties have done. This also differentiated the show from the rest of the MCU. Coker had plotted the story of the first four episodes before the show's writers room began work, but had initially done so over two or three episodes, with the event at the end of the second episode originally taking place at the end of the first. Loeb and Marvel's Karim Zreik told Coker to slow the pace of the show down, which led to an approach that Coker compared to the film Unforgiven (1992). Coker also planned the "rugpull" at the end of the seventh episode from his initial pitch, wanting the audience to feel the same way he had reading Alpha Flight #12 which featured the death of Guardian.
Set in Harlem, rather than the Hell's Kitchen of the previous Marvel's Netflix television series, Colter described the season as "a completely different world". Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief Joe Quesada said that unlike the fictionalized version of Hell's Kitchen depicted in Daredevil and Jessica Jones, which was more inline with how it was when the comics were first written, the Harlem of Luke Cage represents the Harlem of "today", and is truer to the real-life modern New York. However, Colter admitted that the show's version of Harlem "does resemble Harlem of maybe ten years ago." Coker said that Harlem was a world for the series, but also about legacy. He wanted to replicate the experience of walking through Harlem and hearing different music coming from cars driving past and open windows, which he felt was unique to the neighborhood. Coker further described the Harlem's Paradise nightclub as the series' Iron Throne, and wanted it to "invoke the history of Harlem ... it's crime, politics, music, really the whole cornucopia of the black creative existence in one place."
Cage is seen wearing a black hoodie throughout the series, which, beyond being practical for a character trying to lie low, was a nod to Trayvon Martin and Black Lives Matter. Colter said it was meant to invoke "the idea that a black man in a hoodie isn't necessarily a threat. He might just be a hero." The series also features a political campaign with the slogan "Keep Harlem Black", "in the face of gentrification that threatens to homogenize Harlem's cultural history." Discussing these racial undertones, Coker asked, "how does the presence of a bulletproof black man change the ecosystem of a neighborhood? Not just in terms of the street-level crime. How do the cops react to someone like that? What are the ripple effects of doing that? That's one of the things I wanted to explore on the show". He did caution comparisons to recent headlines involving racial tension given when they had begun working on the show, stating that his focus had been on "identity", which he saw as a common element in all black art.
Casting The main cast for the season includes Mike Colter as Luke Cage; Mahershala Ali as Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes; Simone Missick as Misty Knight; Theo Rossi as Hernan "Shades" Alvarez; Erik LaRay Harvey as Willis Stryker / Diamondback, whose involvement was not officially announced by Marvel prior to the season's release, as he agreed not to do any publicity for the show to not "ruin the twist" of Stryker being the season's main villain; Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, reprising her role from Daredevil and Jessica Jones; and Alfre Woodard as Mariah Dillard.
In September 2015, Frank Whaley was cast as Rafael Scarfe. Sean Ringgold and Karen Pittman were revealed to be involved in the series in March 2016, playing Sugar and Priscilla Ridley, respectively. Also recurring throughout the season are Ron Cephas Jones as Bobby Fish, Jacob Vargas as Domingo Colon, Darius Kaleb as Lonnie Wilson, Jade Wu as Connie Lin, Deborah Ayorinde as Candace Miller, Justin Swain as Mark Bailey, Jaiden Kaine as Zip, Dawn-Lyen Gardner as Megan McLaren, Jeremiah Richard Craft as D. W. Griffith, Michael Kostroff as Noah Burstein, Tijuana Ricks as Thembi Wallace, and John Clarence Stewart as Alex Wesley.
Several other actors also reprise roles from other Marvel Netflix shows: Parisa Fitz-Henley returns as Cage's deceased wife Reva Connors from Jessica Jones; Rob Morgan reprises the role of Turk Barrett from Daredevil; Rachael Taylor provides the voice of Trish Walker, who she plays in Jessica Jones, for a radio talk show; and Danny Johnson and Stephen Rider reprise their roles of Benjamin Donovan and Blake Tower from the second season of Daredevil.
Design