“This place is my reputation, my legacy, my blood.”
Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes, nefarious kingpin and one of the major power players of Harlem, throws down the gauntlet in the latest and indeed final trailer for Luke Cage, the buzzworthy new superhero series to come tumbling off the Netflix conveyor belt.
Pegged for a premiere on Friday, September 30, we’re now only a few days away from the show’s debut, and the action-packed snippet above ramps up excitement in excellent fashion, simultaneously outlining the conflicted nature of Mike Colter’s Hero for Hire, along with the cancer that’s plaguing the streets of Harlem. Much of that will stem from Cottonmouth, of course, and these teasers suggest that showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker has located a scenery-chewing actor in Mahershala Ali (House of Cards, Moonlight).
Also starring Alfre Woodard, Simone Missick, Theo Rossi, Frank Whaley, and Rosario Dawson, if you’re wanting a more comprehensive preview of what’s in store, look no further than our Luke Cage review, which championed Coker’s series to be “a provocative, socially conscious crime drama that brings a fresh perspective to the ever-crowding superhero genre.”
Beyond the scope of Marvel’s small-screen universe, creative thinkers (read: Joe and Anthony Russo) continue to entertain the notion that the likes of Luke Cage, Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist could one day make the transition to cinema. We’ll be keeping tabs on that one.
Marvel and Netflix’s reluctant hero will be invited out to play, potentially saving the day in the process, when Luke Cage premieres on September 30. It’s the third out of four origin stories hailing from Marvel and Netflix, with Iron Fist being the final domino to fall in early 2017 before both parties call upon The Defenders – possibly with The Punisher in tow.