8. The Luke Cage Series Will Have A Strong Comedic Tone
There are a couple of reasons why the Luke Cage series will be more of a light-hearted romp than the other two series, Daredevil and A.K.A. Jessica Jones. Firstly, it will need to set itself apart from the gritty Daredevil series and the tough-woman-proving-she's-just-as-strong-as-the-guys Jessica Jones series. In other words, the Luke Cage series will need to carve out its own identity - there's simply no point in it doing the same shtick as the other series. Secondly, Luke Cage will star a black man, and producers will want the series to be as popular as possible - meaning that it will need to maximise the number of white viewers as well as black viewers. With this being said, and bearing in mind race persists in being a critically important (and increasingly hidden) factor with American audiences, producers could be forgiven for worrying that white viewers won't want to watch an angry black man every week. With the Blade films, the strong-black-man-beating-on-white-guys undercurrent was watered down with the factor that the white guys were actually vampires and indisputably deserved a whupping. With Luke Cage, producers will want to steer clear of inadvertent subtexts concerning racial politics. Don't expect to ever hear Luke expound on how hard it is to be a black male in modern-day America, which, by the way, it still is. Given these real-world concerns, it seems utterly impossible that race won't be a factor for producers as they plan out the Luke Cage series. In fact, they probably picked his character because he's less grim than other black characters. In all fairness, the strong comedic tone will successfully set it apart from the other series and allow for the romance story-line with Luke and Jessica Jones to progress. They'll be ample scope for dramatic scenes with them starting a family and with their courtship finally leading to marriage. With the wedding, fans can hope to see Stan Lee cameo as the priest, as he did in the comic; however, can the producers resist TV's typical stubborn refusal to allow characters to have a happy ending?
Mike has lived in the UK, Japan and the USA. Currently, he is based in Iowa with his wife and 2 young children. After working for many years as a writer and editor for a large corporation, he is now a freelancer. He has been fortunate enough to contribute to many books on Doctor Who over the last 20 years and is now concentrating on original sci-fi & fantasy short stories, with recent sales including Flame Tree, Uffda, and The Martian Wave. Also, look for his contribution on Blake's 7 to "You and Who Else", a charity anthology to be released later this year.
You can find him on Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/culttvmike
