Mekai Curtis on Raising Kanan Finale, Power: Origins
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Mekai Curtis says Kanan's calm acceptance of learning that Jukebox killed his mother Raq reflects 'the ultimate version of Kanan understanding what Raq taught him at the beginning of the series'
- Jukebox (Hailey Kilgore) shot and killed Raq (Patina Miller) to avenge her father's murder at Kanan's hands, then told her cousin at the diner that she'd taken 'everyone that cares about him' out of his life
- Before Raq's death, Kanan and Raq met on a public street to discuss the hit Stefano put on her — a moment Curtis called 'justif[ying] the actions of all of the characters' because they 'had different love languages'
- Curtis has completed the first season of Power: Origins, the Sascha Penn-created prequel that reunites young James St. Patrick (Spence Moore II) and young Tommy Egan (Charlie Mann) with young Kanan
- The Raising Kanan finale introduced 13-year-old versions of James and Tommy — played by Maxwell Davis and Andrew Bennett — who tried to work with Kanan, but 'they're still too young,' Curtis said
- Curtis described the lesson he takes from playing Kanan across five seasons as 'love' — patient, kind, giving space — and said a 'rare level of vulnerability and safety' on set let the cast 'translate with these characters even more'
- Kanan sees himself in the two boys in Origins, said Curtis: 'there's still a slight shred of care' even as he declines to expose them to the life that will bring them back to him
Why it matters: With Raq dead and Kanan absorbing the loss, the Power franchise formally closes the prequel chapter and pivots to Origins, which positions Curtis as the connective tissue between the Southside, Jamaica, Queens origin story and the events of the original Power series — meaning the young cast (Moore II, Mann) now carries the weight of bridging two eras of the franchise.
Ask SkimNews
