‘Luke Cage’ Season 2 Showrunner Reveals How Mike Colter Changed Finale Ending

“Marvel’s Luke Cage” Season 2 ended with quite a twist. Luke became the crime boss of Harlem, and he looked more like a villain than a Defender when overlooking his new club. Showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker told International Business Times about the twist ending and how he had written it a little differently.

In the Season 2 finale of the Netflix drama, Mariah (Alfre Woodard) was killed, but she had just updated her will. She left the club, Harlem’s Paradise, to Luke (Mike Colter) because he is someone who truly loves the neighborhood. In her absence, other gangsters had tried to take their drugs and guns to Harlem, and Luke decided that he had to take Mariah’s place as a crime boss in order to keep the peace. The way he kicks Misty (Simone Missick) out of his office makes audiences wonder if he is the new villain in Season 3.

“Yes and no. More yes than no,” Coker told IBT when asked if he intended to make it look like Luke was the new big bad. “What I had scripted was more reluctant. I got this club and here I am, I’m now in charge, but am I really a villain or am I a hero? What was interesting was when we got to the day, Mike said, ‘You know what? This is how I’m gonna play it.’ He played it happy…jubilant in a very sinister way.”

Though it wasn’t what the writer had in mind when penning the “Luke Cage” finale, he is proud of Colter’s choice. “Ultimately, the thing was, was that I like what Mike was doing. It wasn’t what I had written, but we have a very collaborative relationship as I do with all the actors,” Coker explained.

“I think you get a better performance out of an actor when you have a partner,” he continued. “The actor, writer relationship is symbiotic. One can’t really survive without the other in this medium. There has to be a collaboration. So when Mike was following his instinct, it was like, ‘Okay, let’s think about this.’ And then, ‘Okay, let's follow this.’ In doing so, I was really happy in the end.”

Coker was especially happy with the parallels that could be made to the pilot with the scene when Mahershala Ali’s Cottonmouth was overlooking Harlem’s Paradise. “When you compare that or contrast that with what Mahershala did in episode 1, you see that they kind of both have similar reactions,” he noted. “[That] they’re almost standing in the same place is chilling.”

Clearly, Luke’s story isn’t over yet. “Luke Cage” has not yet been renewed for Season 3, but Coker has a plan should Netflix give them another season.

“You have ideas, you have notions, like a snowball rolling downhill, they’ll evolve, given the opportunity to evolve,” he said. “You can’t really plan too heavily. You just have to keep things interesting. I never want to overstay the welcome of a show.”

“Marvel’s Luke Cage” Season 2 is available now on Netflix.