It’s a great time to be a Marvel fan, as we have an ever-expanding slew of films to look forward to, including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man, to name just those with official release dates. On the TV side of things, Marvel already has Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC, and will soon be jumping into the streaming world as well, with a 52-episode deal over at Netflix.
The plan is to have four individual, 13-episode series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist), that will all lead into the eight-episode team-up miniseries, The Defenders. It was just announced that Marvel will be turning New York City into Hell’s Kitchen for the shows, with The Cabin in the Woods writer/director Drew Goddard working on Daredevil, and Dexter co-executive producer Melissa Rosenberg behind Jessica Jones. With production expected to get underway very soon, we’re now just waiting to see who will portray these beloved characters.
Currently, we don’t know who will be behind the Luke Cage series, but Collider sat down with actor Terry Crews to talk about his role in Tyler Perry’s upcoming The Single Mom’s Club and couldn’t help but to ask the actor what he thought of the possibility of landing the coveted role.
His name had been thrown around by fans quite a bit when talk of a Luke Cage film was up in the air, but Crews stepped aside and took himself out of the running since nothing was even greenlit at that point. Now that we know that a series is moving forward, he’s a bit more enthusiastic about the possibility:
“Anything can happen. All I know is scheduling and all that stuff—anything can happen. I’m open to all kinds of things, but who knows? Actually I took myself out of the Luke Cage running a while back, just because it was people trying to put people against each other. [It was] Idris vs. Michael Jai and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, this is not even greenlit! Can we talk to Marvel? Why are you talking to me? Don’t put me against my homeboy for a movie that’s not existing.’ I said, ‘Take me out!’
“I heard [it’s greenlit] but I haven’t gotten any calls. I’ve been hearing stuff like, ‘oh you’re too old,’ and I’m like, ‘Man do my workout 20 years ago and we’ll talk about who’s too old (laughs).’”
“Like I said, anything can happen, I never rule anything out. I’m game. There are no rules. What’s up, Marvel? I’m right here, baby. I ain’t goin nowhere. You know where I live!” (laughs)
Crews is currently under contract for Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, so scheduling conflicts may keep him from playing the part if he’s ever approached by Marvel. As he says, nothing has happened yet, so this is all just speculation for now, but it’s easy to see how great he would be in the role. Is he too old? Perhaps, and perhaps not. We still don’t know what direction this series might take, but as Crews jokes, his age shouldn’t be a factor.
My guess is we’ll start hearing more about these series this summer at San Diego Comic Con. Marvel likes putting on a good show, and what better way to excite audiences than tell them what’s going on behind the curtain of five highly anticipated shows?
