When ‘Luke Cage’ was canceled after the second season, most fans didn’t know that the third season was already in pre-production. This detail came from Mike Colter during the Television Critics Association Summer Tour while he was interviewed for the panel on his new series ‘Evil.’
The actor had plenty of other details to share as well. To start with, Colter was asked if he would be willing to return as ‘Luke Cage’ down the line if he was asked. “Anything’s possible. It’s all about scheduling. It’s nice to be gainfully employed doing something that I really love and a change of character completely.”
RELATED: Mike Colter Admits He Wasn’t That Shocked By ‘Luke Cage”s Cancellation
However, just being asked wouldn’t be an immediate yes as:
“I’d really need to see where he’s going and what the storyline would be. Everyone has questions about where he was going to go in Season Three. At this point, we’d be starting not from scratch, but I need to see where he’s going. As an actor, we’re always looking to do different things so as long as you’re gainfully employed and doing something that stimulates you, you’re not always looking in your rearview mirror trying to figure out what else you can be doing with the character you’ve already played. So I’m more concerned about the future than the past, but I’m always open to doing something again. Then again, things happen.”
Hopefully, if a third season were to happen, Marvel Television would have more control and say as to the future of the series. On the flip side, if ‘Luke Cage’ were to return down the line, it wouldn’t necessarily be Colter playing the character. As Colter says, “Marvel could recast, they could do anything they want with that project. They could do anything they want with it. It is their right.”
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While the cancellation was a surprise to some, Colter wasn’t at all shocked once ‘Daredevil’ came to an end:
“I think I probably had a little more intel about it because I felt like the delays and the postponement of our starting was starting to become a little bit habitual and I had a feeling. So while that was happening, I was doing some different little projects and just working, and I’m always the kind of person, I never count my chickens, as they say, before they hatch. Everyone thought it was a guaranteed success, so it was going to just be picked up.”
The one thing that was jarring was that ‘Luke Cage’ had already started working on Season 3 when the ax came down:
“We were internally picked up. We were greenlit. Everyone at Netflix, everyone at Marvel, so it was a foregone conclusion that we start. But again, I’m one of those people, I don’t know if it’s pragmatic or pessimistic, however you want to describe it, until I’m on set and we’re filming, I don’t believe anything. That’s how I am so it didn’t catch me completely off guard, and I was completely focused on family. My daughter was born. I was completely doing something else when it happened.
It was a process that was happening. Season 3 was greenlit. They were in the process of greenlighting scripts, approving the scripts and stuff like that. It just kept getting delayed, delayed, delayed for a lot of reasons. So it’s unfortunate, but I feel like we left people wanting more as opposed to staying too long. It’s unfortunate, but like I said, it’s always a possibility that something like that can come around again. Just not right now.”
If Netflix’s plan all along was to cancel every Marvel show after ‘Daredevil,’ it is a bit of a surprise that it had been internally greenlit. Perhaps things were a bit more fluid than fans were lead to believe. It is a shame that these characters aren’t going to have a final closure to their story arcs.
Were you at all surprised that the third season for ‘Luke Cage’ was in development when it was canceled? Do you wish that Marvel’s Netflix heroes all had at least one last season to tie up their stories or that the streaming giant had let Marvel take back creative control? Share your thoughts in the comments below, True Believers!
Source: Slash Film
