Fall Preview 2016: Will Marvel’s ‘Luke Cage’ life up to the hype?
Over the years, Marvel and Netflix have come up with a wide array of extremely great shows. “Daredevil” was thoroughly intense, and “Jessica Jones” may be one of the best superhero shows to come on TV over the past decade.
So can you say that this sets the bar high for “Luke Cage” moving forward? We’d certainly say so. It’s a show that looks great on paper, but it has to match expectations of two other programs while also introduce many casual comic fans to a character they may not be altogether familiar with. We’re going to analyze everything that we know about this series and then some in the latest edition of our Fall Preview series.
Premiere Date and Timeslot Competition – September 30. In terms of direct competition, there really is none! This is the direct result of being on a streaming service, and don’t have the pressure of airing against other shows that are live. The only concern that we have is that Netflix is throwing “Luke Cage” right during the start of the fall season for major networks, and there is a slight chance it gets lots in the shuffle for some.
Logline – “In this Marvel live action series, a street-fighting ex-con battles crime on the streets of New York as the Super Hero, Luke Cage.” (When it comes to loglines, this has to be one of the weaker ones out there.)
Cast – Mike Colter, Mahershala Ali, Alfre Woodard, Simone Missick, Theo Rossi, Frank Whaley, and Sônia Braga.
Trailer – It’s amazing. It’s almost exactly what we feel like many Marvel fans would want. While it doesn’t necessarily give a lot away when it comes to the story, at the same exact time it provides you with some of his origin story and a really strong depiction of the Harlem world in which Luke lives. Also, Colter looks more than capable of carrying the show on his (muscular) shoulders.
Overall Take – While it’s still to be seen precisely how great the overall product is, this trailer gives us all of the confidence in the world that the series will be every bit as great as we imagined that it would be. The one thing left to hope for is that we get some sort of Jessica Jones cameo given her history with Luke.