TV Underdogs: Will ‘Scandal’ season 5 give us more Marcus Walker?
Before the start of “Scandal” season 5, ABC unleashed on us what we personally thought to be some very intriguing news: Cornelius Smith Jr. was getting promoted to series regular for his role as Marcus Walker. What was interesting about this at the time is that we only knew Marcus as an activist through a couple of appearances (most notably “The Lawn Chair”) in season 4, and did not know exactly how he would fit in moving forward.
Now we know, given that he is a new Gladiator at Olivia Pope & Associates. With that being said, we still don’t know nearly enough about him or how he works in the field. Will the producers give us more soon? We hope so, since this is what this particular TV Underdogs piece is all about.
Why he’s an underdog – For one, Marcus is the new guy, and anytime you’re coming into a show that has been around for a few years, you have to play a little catch-up. We’re trying to identify in this Underdogs series the people who we are rooting for the most, and he is very high up on the list. He’s a smart, savvy, and resourceful guy, and we feel like for at least the time being he has not been given the chance to show his full capability just yet.
Why we haven’t seen more of him – For the moment, it’s largely a function of where we’ve been in the Olivia Pope narrative. With her being at the White House, OPA has not had the same amount of play that it would have in many other seasons. The character has been given more of a slow burn so far, but given that more than half of the season is still presumably to come, that could lead to plenty of opportunities to see Marcus in the future.
Ways to use him more – The most obvious answer there is to simply present OPA with a case that causes Marcus to think back to his own past, or have him develop a friendship with someone. Sure, Quinn and Huck are not the easiest people to get to know, but it has to be possible still, right? Another solution would be to place Marcus in a position where his particular skill set is counted on more, and that includes his ability to motivate people into action and knowing how the media works.
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