When Marvel Studios decided to take charge of Marvel Television, the TV shows that streamed on Netflix were quickly cancelled. That meant Luke Cage wrapped up after just two seasons with a major cliffhanger which saw Power Man became the new Kingpin of Crime in Harlem.
Cage did briefly appear in the third and final season of Jessica Jones to offer the P.I. some friendly advice, but that did little to offer any sort of closure for the character.
While rumours persist that Charlie Cox will reprise the role of Matt Murdock/Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home, it's become clear these characters are going to be rebooted to at least some extent, so the odds of their stories continuing in a direct way are undeniably slim. As for Luke Cage himself, Mike Colter, the actor admitted to walking away from the series somewhat unsatisfied.
"There were so many places we could have taken it. There’s obviously the Alias series where Jessica and Luke had a child and had this adult life they were trying to live, and there’s this moment where they are working out their blue collar, making ends meet life together, which is very interesting," he told the site. "There’s the journey that Luke had in his own series with Harlem’s Paradise, where he’s taken over the club, and is he gonna be a bad guy or a guy that is on the other side of the law, and who’s gonna stop him. That was another interesting thing to watch, with him maybe being a little gangster, and that would’ve been cool too."
"So, I don’t think there’s any closure to it, nor do I feel like we were able to get any of that closure by having the appearance in Jessica Jones, but it is what it is. It’s one of those things where we’ll just never know. There are a lot of shows that live in that space where it’s like, “Oh, man!” It’s unfortunate, but that’s just one of the things that happens in television sometimes."
Clearly, Colter doesn't believe he'll be reprising the role of Luke Cage in the near future, and when the character does return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, chances are we'll get a slightly more comic accurate version. That hopefully means Power Man will be teaming up with Iron Fist as part of Heroes for Hire, something we never really got to see when they appeared together on Netflix.
What do you hope the future holds in store for Luke Cage?