The Making of Luke Cage: A Hero for This Moment

1 minute read
From left to right: Creator Cheo Hodari Coker envisions a superhero show that fuses politics with hip-hop, set in Harlem; Alfre Woodard plays Mariah Dillard, a corrupt Harlem politician who sees Luke’s powers as an opportunity; Mike Colter stars as the smart and suave hero, Luke Cage; Simone Missick is Misty Knight, a cop who has a love-hate relationship with the vigilante hero; Ali Shaheed Muhammad, one-third of the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, co-created the show’s score; Composer Adrian Younge teamed with Muhammad to create a jazz-, blues- and hip-hop-inspired scorePhotograph by Gregg Segal fot TIME
By Eliana Dockterman

A bulletproof man hides out in Harlem. The wrongfully convicted ex-con with superhuman strength wants to keep a low profile but soon finds himself caught between a trigger-happy crime lord and an intrepid police officer. Despite his misgivings, he uses his body to shield the neighborhood from stray bullets in the battle between cops and criminals. This makes Netflix’s newest protagonist, Luke Cage, an inherently political hero. Born in the pages of Marvel comics in 1972 during the boom in blaxploitation films, the man immune to bullets has taken on new resonance in the era of Black Lives Matter…

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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com