As Twitter is run into the ground by its new lord and master Elon Musk, it seems it’s time for people to spill their secrets and drop some long-held admissions before the time comes to finally turn the lights off on the site as we all migrate to Mastodon. That includes one veteran of the Defenders Saga who seems to finally be admitting that they made a grievous error in how they wasted one acclaimed character. But the big question is, do the fans forgive them?
The Defenders Saga alum in question is Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker who shared a hilarious tweet today that got Marvel folks talking. “Since it really looks like this thing is going…” Coker wrote, “have y’all forgiven me for Cottonmouth yet?”
For anyone who needs some memory-jogging, which is fair enough as we’re talking about a series that hasn’t been on our screens since 2018, Coker’s tweet refers to the controversial death of Cottonmouth halfway through Luke Cage‘s first season. Mahershala Ali’s Harlem-based crime boss looked set to be a worthy successor to the crown of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin… until he was shockingly murdered by his equally crooked cousin, Alfre Woodard’s Mariah Dillard.
With Cottonmouth gone, Diamondback (Erik LaRay Harvey) replaced him as the main villain and everyone agreed the quality took a nosedive. Unfortunately, it seems there was no version of events where Cottonmouth stuck around for the full season, though, as Coker confirmed in the replies that Ali only accepted the job because it didn’t require too much of a commitment.
All in all, everything worked out in the end as Ali’s truncated Luke Cage arc eventually allowed him to land a much more substantial Marvel gig, playing the Daywalker himself in the upcoming Blade reboot. Sure, it may call the canon status of Luke Cage into question, but at least we’re finally getting more of the Oscar winner in the MCU.