Originally published January 16, 2017. Updated November 30, 2022.
Mike Colter is set to reprise the role of Luke Cage this summer as Power Man joins up with his fellow street-level heroes Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist for Marvel and Netflix’s The Defenders, and Colter has been chatting to EW about the team-up series and Luke’s role within it.
“It’s safe to say Cage is not going to spend the entire season of The Defenders behind bars,” said Colter. “He’s been able to come clean and deal with his past… The difficulty with Cage [in the first season] is that he has this secret, he has this thing that he’s been trying to run away from and deal with, and that’s a big burden to bear. That weighs on you, that changes who you are as a person. Now that that’s out of the way, I think we can give him a different approach to life.”
The Defenders will mark the first time we get to see Power Man and Iron Fist together on screen (barring a cameo in the upcoming Iron Fist series, of course), and Colter went on to discuss the relationship and the dynamic between the two Heroes for Hire:
“[Danny Rand] is a young guy. There’s an exuberance that Iron Fist comes with that Luke Cage wants to temper a bit. It can’t help but have a wisdom-versus-youth quality… Danny comes out like a bull in a china shop in some ways, and I think Luke has seen the world and knows certain things. It’s a cool combination that’ll work out. We definitely want to pay homage to the fanboys, but we want to make it make sense in this time period.”
SEE ALSO: Jessica Jones, Trish Walker and Danny Rand featured in new images from Marvel’s The Defenders
“Marvel’s The Defenders follows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. A quartet of singular heroes with one common goal – to save New York City. This is the story of four solitary figures, burdened with their own personal challenges, who realize they just might be stronger when teamed together.”
The Defenders will hit Netflix in 2017, with Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Finn Jones (Iron Fist), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Simone Missick (Misty Knight), Scott Glenn (Stick), Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple), Rachael Taylor (Trish Walker), Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing) and Elodie Yung (Elektra) appearing alongside Sigourney Weaver as the villain, Alexandra.
