Mike Colter Discusses Luke Cage's Role in THE DEFENDERS and His Friendship With Iron Fist
The Defenders news continues to roll in with an interview with actor Mike Colter about the upcoming Marvel series. He discusses Luke Cage's role in the story and also the character's friendship with Danny Rand, a.k.a. Iron Fist. He begins by telling EW:
“It’s safe to say Cage is not going to spend the entire season of The Defenders behind bars. He’s been able to come clean and deal with his past… The difficulty with Cage [in the first season] is that he has this secret, he has this thing that he’s been trying to run away from and deal with, and that’s a big burden to bear. That weighs on you, that changes who you are as a person. Now that that’s out of the way, I think we can give him a different approach to life.”
He goes on to reveal that Cage will be acting as “the conciliator” for the group, explaining, “I’m the guy, the wisdom. If you want to make sure something works, run it up the flagpole.”
Showrunner Marco Ramirez adds, “Luke is someone who’s, in a very mature way, compartmentalized his life.”
Since Cage is taking on a more mature role in the group, he's looking at taking Finn Jones' Danny Rand under his wing and will be kind of a mentor to the character. When talking about their relationship, Colter says:
“He’s a young guy. There’s an exuberance that Iron Fist comes with that Luke Cage wants to temper a bit. It can’t help but have a wisdom-versus-youth quality… Danny comes out like a bull in a china shop in some ways, and I think Luke has seen the world and knows certain things. It’s a cool combination that’ll work out.”
I'm looking forward to seeing the friendship between these two characters grow. There's no doubt that their relationship dynamic in the series was inspired by the Heroes for Hire comic book series. Colter goes on to say:
“We definitely want to pay homage to the fanboys, but we want to make it make sense in this time period.”
Ramirez also made sure to remind us that Luke Cage is really the only member of the team who is "openly walking around as a hero," and “there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that.”
We'll make sure to keep you updated as the interviews with The Defenders actors continue to roll in. Marvel’s The Defenders arrives on Netflix this summer. I'm hoping that we get to see a trailer for this series soon!