‘Luke Cage’, the upcoming Netflix TV series, is going to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of ‘The Wire’, according to its executive producer Cheo Hodari Coker.
Coker, who has also written several of the series’ opening episodes, hopes his show will hit the heights of HBO’s seminal crime drama, which concerned the many problems in the US city of Baltimore, and which is considered one of the best TV series of all time.
“It’s very sophisticated,” he told Entertainment Weekly at the premiere of the Marvel’s latest blockbuster Captain America: Civil War. “I mean, it’s got a ’90s hip-hop vibe, but it’s really forward-thinking. We have Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad doing the scoring for us.”
Starring Mike Colter as the eponymous, bulletproof hero, ‘Luke Cage’ is the first black character from the Marvel archives to top the billing of any film or series. Set in modern-day Harlem, a historically African-American neighbourhood of New York City, the show is Marvel’s third collaboration with Netflix after Daredevil and Jessica Jones, and promises to follow the same gritty tone, but with its own unique character.
Coker said: “We have a lot of different musical appearances, but at the same time, we’ve got the Marvel action. We’ve got drama. I would like this to be, I mean, I know this is heavy but, ‘The Wire’ of Marvel television, because we really deal with a lot of different issues.”
Colter, who was also on the red carpet, said that the series is very faithful to his character, but that some changes were necessary.
He said:“We were trying not to be on the nose. We’re going to give all the fans all the things they want. But we’ve got to bring it up a bit and step into the current time. So we’re going to make sure everybody’s happy, but don’t expect a yellow shirt every day. Let’s put it that way … We brought it to mustard. We started there. We knocked it down a bit. Not so bright.”
‘Luke Cage’ will be available to stream in full on 30 September via Netflix.