‘Raising Kanan’ Cast, Showrunner Sascha Penn Tease Exclusive Season 4 Details
In this day and age of peak(ish) TV, it’s not unusual for a series to cap a season with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger. But the third season of the Starz hit Power Book III: Raising Kanan dropped one and then some.
“I don’t think anyone was ready for how it ended,” star Patina Miller told The Hollywood Reporter during a special event in partnership with Starz in Park City, Utah, during the Sundance Film Festival in January. “It literally ended on two bangs.”
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Two bangs followed by two bodies hitting the floor to close out a wild and action-packed third season. The fourth is locked and loaded and ready to roll out on March 7, and ahead of its debut Miller joined showrunner, executive producer and Power guru Sascha Penn, title star Mekai Curtis and the one and only Tony Danza for a compliment-filled panel discussion at Pendry Park City. The foursome recapped the Raising Kanan journey thus far and teased what’s to come as seen in the full video above.
Set in the early 1990s, Raising Kanan unspools the origin story of the ruthless Kanan Stark the antagonist originated by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in the show that started it all — Power. Raising Kanan is the second series in the expanded Power franchise. The Power Universe series is executive produced by the creator and showrunner of the original, Courtney A. Kemp, through her production company End of Episode, 50 Cent through G-Unit Film and Television, and Mark Canton through Canton Entertainment. Chris Selak and Kevin Fox serve as executive producers. Lionsgate Television produces the series for Starz.
In addition to Miller, Curtis and Danza, season four will star new cast members like Saturday Night Live alum Chris Redd and Pardison Fontaine as well as the re-introduction of Joey Bada$$ who is seemingly back from the dead and looking for revenge.
Back to the family business, the blood-soaked finale brought mother and son face to face with the realization that they may be much more alike than they previously thought. As the season four trailer shows, a more confident Kanan continues to flex his muscle in the business, while Miller’s matriarch, Raquel, aka Raq, questions if she can trust him after all. As they continue to expand their reign in the drug empire, they continue their collaborations with street legends Snaps (Wendell Pierce) and Pop (Erika Woods) and Italian mob boss Stefano Marchetti (Tony Danza) amid more gunfire.
“Season four delivers,” Penn said after confirming that the trailer delivers a “good take” on what’s to come. “It’s action-packed at its heart. This show has always remained a family drama, and the trailer does a good job of capturing the emotional highs and lows of the season. It’s really representative of what season four will be.”
The mother and son bond will surely be tested, once again. But as Miller said, there’s no denying that Raq loves her son. “She loves him so much. Does she want him in the business? No,” Miller explained. “If you watch the show, the entire first season is all about her encouraging him to go to school, go get a degree, have a chance and do the thing that I wasn’t able to do. As a mother, she’s trying to play the good mom, ‘Do this thing — go. You don’t want to end up the way that I ended up.’ She knows how it will end for him. … In the beginning, that is where she was, battling her son who’s coming into his own. He’s not as naive as he’s been. He’s starting to push back and question her love for him and [how she’s wanted him so close]. It starts to play with her. It starts to mess things up.”
Penn continued the thought by saying that Raq’s love is more complex than typical familial dynamics.
“The tension is that Raq is a narcissist, and all narcissists’ love is a very complicated idea, and it’s pretty fraught,” said the showrunner. “What she really struggles with, internally, is she does love her son and yet there are times when her love for her son compromises her sense of self. When those two things collide, it becomes very, very complicated. There’s choices that have to be made, and those are very, very tough choices.”
Curtis also weighed in on his interpretation of where they are headed in season four by saying that it’s almost like a “constant chess battle” between the two central characters. “You get to see them navigate their personal relationship through being business partners and how they learn to start trying to communicate again and how they’re feeling each other out,” explained the actor. “From day one, [Kanan’s] been asking questions and getting answers, and as he’s getting more answers, he’s now building his own reality and world based off of what he’s seeing put in front of him.”
As for Danza, expect to see Stefano Marchetti get more deeply involved with the Thomas family, something that is teased in the trailer. Something that did not make the final cut is, ahem, some possible affection Stefano has for Raq. At least according to the TV legend.
“This is just me talking now, not the organization here, but I think Stefano was really hot for Raq. I’m not kidding,” he said with a grin. “I think he has it bad for her. There’s a couple of lines [next season] that I can’t repeat here that he says in the show that would lead you to believe that.”
To see what Danza means, tune into a new season of Power Book III: Raising Kanan on March 7.
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