15 Greatest Performances In Marvel Cinematic Universe TV Shows
7. Mahershala Ali - Cornell Stokes (Luke Cage)
Mahershala Ali is a serious talent. He really made a name for himself with a stellar supporting turn as Remy Dalton in House of Cards, and may soon find himself with an Oscar nomination for his role in Moonlight.
In between, he continued the Netflix Marvel Universe run of the shows producing a truly captivating villain.
Not as phsycially imposing as Fisk, nor as deranged as Kilgrave, but Ali's Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes was still cut from the same evil cloth. He was presented not as an outright loathsome bad guy, but a multi-faceted character with aspects you could understand and almost root for.
Through the first half of Luke Cage's debut season he was the most captivating on-screen presence. Cottonmouth is dangerous and violent, but you never feel like that's the only side to him. And even if it were, Ali's megawatt smile and almost effortless and endless charisma help the character along.
The biggest mistake Luke Cage made was the mid-season twist. Diamondback proved nowhere near as fun or interesting to watch as Cottonmouth did, and it would've been great to see Ali given the chance to do even more with the character. Based on what we saw, he would've totally nailed it.