Despite making his first comic book appearance all the way back in 1972, it would be over 40 years before Luke Cage finally made his live-action debut in the first season of Jessica Jones before going on to headline his own solo show, but there had previously been several attempts to bring the character to the big screen over the decades.
Quentin Tarantino toyed with the idea of writing and directing Luke Cage with Laurence Fishburne in the lead role back in the 1990s, while Boyz n the Hood and 2 Fast 2 Furious filmmaker John Singleton tried to get an adaptation off the ground in the early 2000s as Jamie Foxx and Tyrese Gibson found themselves linked to the project.
Of course, Mike Colter delivered a solid performance across both seasons of the Netflix series, but with the rights to all of the Defenders set to revert back to Marvel Studios in the near future, it looks likely that he won’t be invited to reprise his role as Harlem’s guardian angel unlike some of his former co-stars.
There’s almost no doubt that we’ll be seeing Luke Cage return to our screens eventually, and we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones that told us the Fast & Furious franchise is headed to space, and a She-Hulk show is coming to Disney Plus – that Marvel are looking to revert back to his original name when it comes time to reboot the character.
According to our intel, the studio are planning on introducing their version of Luke Cage as Power Man and using the alter ego going forward as a moniker, presumably in an effort to differentiate from the Netflix show and continue the formula of largely avoiding having superheroes operating under their real names. As the first black hero to headline a comic book, Luke Cage is a hugely important figure, and if handled correctly, he could be a potentially major addition to the MCU when the time comes.
