10 TV Characters With The Most Wasted Potential
4. Cottonmouth - Luke Cage
Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali is only in the first seven episodes of Luke Cage before his character, the Godfather-like supervillain Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes, is killed. Funnily enough, these seven episodes are also the show's best.
A looming threat to rival that of fellow Marvel foils Kingpin and Kilgrave, Cottonmouth was calculating and cold, sure money and fear would buy him the power he craved, and the results of his greed made him a formidably entertaining foe - and, by extension, the best aspect of a show with many highs.
It was a shock, then, when the ruthless arms dealer was killed in Luke Cage's seventh episode by his cousin, Mariah. The show never recovered from the vacuum his death left, and though Mariah herself was a magnificent villain, she never quite matched the steely, unpredictable nature of Cottonmouth's evil.
Ali may have known the death was coming, but audiences sure didn't, and it's safe to say everyone would have loved to see him stick around a little longer. Ah, what could have been...