Charlie Cox is Daredevil and Krysten Ritter is Jessica Jones. Now we have the third of the four members of Marvel / Netflix's Defenders crossover event series: Mike Colter will star as Luke Cage, sometimes known as Power Man. You call him names and he sits and grins, 'cause everyone else is just a sucker to him.
This is breakout role for Colter, who's been plugging away in movies and TV for a good decade. On the small screen he's been in the usual suspects like ER, the various Law & Orders, American Horror Story and The Good Wife. In the cinema you might have caught him in Million Dollar Baby, Salt, Men In Black 3 or Zero Dark Thirty. This year he's been Jameson Locke in the X-Box Live series Halo: Nightfall. He's about to blow up rather bigger.
Cage will first appear in A.K.A. Jessica Jones before his own series airs. "Viewers will meet him and experience why he is such an important superhero in the Marvel mythos," says Marvel's head of television Jeph Loeb. "Fans have longed to see Luke Cage and in Mike we've found the perfect actor."
"Mike embodies the strength, edge and depth of Luke Cage,” adds executive producer/showrunner Melissa Rosenberg. “We're excited to have him bring this iconic Marvel character to life."
Cage’s superpowers are the result of an experimental procedure. In Cage’s case, the result was supposed to produce immunity to all illness, but he emerged from the operation with steel-tough, bulletproof skin, super-dense muscle, and massively enhanced strength and stamina. As Power Man he became a “Hero For Hire”, eventually teaming up with Iron Fist. In the comics he has team affiliations with the Defenders and the New Avengers, and an ongoing romantic dalliance (and a baby) with Jessica Jones.
As evidenced by yesterday's new stills, Daredevil is first off the blocks in Netflix's Marvel onslaught, debuting sometime next year and followed sometime thereafter by A.K.A. Jessica Jones. Luke Cage will be third, with Iron Fist completing the collector's set and leading into the full-blown Defenders show.
So now all we need is a Danny Rand...