Marvel's ‘Luke Cage’ Gets Cheo Hodari Coker as Showrunner

Netflix and Marvel Television have today announced that Cheo Hodari Coker will serve as executive producer and showrunner of the upcoming superhero series, Marvel's Luke Cage.

Coker is writing the first two episodes of the series that will premiere in 2016, everywhere that Netflix is available. His feature film screenwriting credits include Fox Searchlight's rap biopic "Notorious." He also authored the book "Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of The Notorious B.I.G." On the small-screen, Coker served as a co-executive producer on the second season of Ray Donovan, and prior to that was a supervising producer on the critically-acclaimed, fourth season of the drama SouthLAnd.

As previously announced, Mike Colter will play the charismatic lead character, Luke Cage, in the series. Cage will be introduced in the AKA Jessica Jones series, which will follow Daredevil later this year or in early 2016.

Marvel's AKA Jessica Jones starring Kristen Ritter in the title role and with Melissa Rosenberg serving as executive producer and showrunner is already in production. Colter's Luke Cage will appear in six or seven before moving over to his own series. While promoting the Ridley Scott-produced Halo: Nightfall, where he stars as Jameson Locke, Colter also briefly talked about his Luke Cage character. He told Comic Book: "We're in the middle of shooting AKA Jessica Jones and Luke Cage is a very interesting character who just happens to have super strength and unbreakable skin. He's a neighborhood hero, very much linked to New York and Jessica Jones. It's all part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but Luke Cage is a darker, grittier, more tangible character than Iron Man or Thor. He likes to keep things close to his chest, operate on the hush-hush. He has these abilities but he's not sure how and when to use them. He's a very nuanced character."

 In the Marvel comic book mythology, Luke Cage is convicted of a crime he didn't commit. To take time off his sentence he participates in an experiment that ends up giving him super-strength and invulnerable skin. He then uses those powers to clear his name and to help other people that have been wronged. But since he can't get a decent regular job on account of his criminal record, he becomes a superhero-for-hire.