“Power Book III: Raising Kanan” Say Goodbye After Five Seasons!
Nerdigo correspondent Kay-B on hand for a fifth and final season chat with Sascha Penn (Creator, Showrunner & Executive Producer), Mekai Curtis (“Kanan Stark”), Patina Miller (“Raquel Thomas”), Tony Danza (“Stefano Marchetti”), London Brown (“Marvin Thomas”), and Joey Bada$$ (“Unique”) of the hit Starz TV show, Power Book III: Raising Kanan. As part of an elite roundtable for the Television Critics Association, the cast and creatives reflect on five seasons, tease the series finale, discuss the expanding Power Universe, and so much more!
On what viewers will feel during the last five minutes of the series, Penn told us: “I hope what they’re feeling is that they’ve experienced a complete story. What I hope is that the questions that we’ve sort of asked over the prior four seasons are fully answered in that fifth season, and in those final seconds. I mean, it’s a high-wire act, a fifth season, a final season. You want to make sure that you get it right, and you want to make sure that you’ve sort of earned the energy and attention of your viewers, of your fans. And I think we definitely have. We’ve given the audience a complete story from start to finish.”
On what’s next in the Power Universe, Penn teased: “We are currently in production on Power Origins, which is the backstory of Ghost and Tommy, who kicked off the original Power series. And there’s actually probably going to be one after that as well, which I’m not involved in, but the universe is still going strong. Power Book III was always supposed to be five seasons. That was always the way I envisioned and pitched it. And after five seasons, I think it’s the right place to sort of end this piece of the story.”
On the gift of his dramatic Power role, Danza shared: “Raising Kanan was a gift. I’m at a certain age, a certain point in my career, and time is limited. And so the things I choose to do are important because all we have is the time. And so this was a gift because it has great writing, great production, and great actors. It was a wonderful place to be.”
On actor or character bucket lists in the fifth and final season, Curtis said: “I just wanted complete storylines, and I think that’s exactly what was accomplished, like Sasha said earlier. We took a while to answer a lot of questions, but those questions got answered. I think as an artist, as an actor, you’re always looking for something that’s going to continue to push you. And season five is no exception. I genuinely think every day there was a new challenge in front of us, but I think we all jumped at it, super excited and ready to do that. So that’s all you can ask for as an actor. There was nothing particularly for me that I was like, ‘Oh, this is a bucket list moment.’ I think those came as each scene arrived.”
Miller continued: “Yeah, I think we’ve all been very fortunate and incredibly lucky to be on a show where, from season one through season five, our characters have been on these crazy journeys where we’ve been able to do everything, right? That’s credit to Sasha and our writers, but Sasha, with the vision of how he wanted these characters to be and how he wanted them to live — I fully got to live in my character, and I got to be powerful, but also show extreme vulnerability. And with all the power, being able to show the vulnerable side was important for me. And getting into the moment, all of the things led up to those moments in the later seasons where Raquel got to show a softer — not even a softer side, just a more damaged, traumatic, vulnerable side of herself. But yeah, this show — we’ve gotten to do everything, and it’s not something you can say all the time about the projects you work on, that you get to have those bucket lists. Everything that I wanted to do, I got to do it on this show.”
Bada$$ answered: “Man, it’s been a beautiful journey, and to piggyback off of what Patina said, I think you, Sasha, have done an incredible job giving all of these characters a full dynamic range. You know what I mean? We were able to use so many different tools in our toolbox. Where the rest of the world, if they weren’t engaged with the show from the outside looking in, saw a crime family drama. I think once they engaged, they saw great writing and great storytelling. Even with the way — I’m extremely impressed with how my character ended up in season five. And the more I think about it, the more I feel like you could not have chosen a better fate for Unique. Because there are so many people who live such a destructive path of life and don’t survive long enough to finally make the right choice. So I think that was just extremely poetic in its own way.”
On playing the bad guy, Danza revealed: “Well, this was a lot of fun to play. You know, there’s that old saying — the bad guys are more fun to play than the good guy. But having said that, this particular character had so many different facets. There were a lot of things to explore. And so, I don’t know how far afield it was, but it certainly was fun to explore.”
Penn remarked: “Yeah, I think I will — I’ll just add to that quickly. While all these amazing actors here play characters that may feel so different from them in real life, there are so many similarities too, you know? And in fact, it’s that stuff that allowed Tony and Joey and London and Mekai to elevate the characters, because they found the pieces of those characters that resonated with themselves, right? That’s the best version of what we do, right? And it’s the same thing for me as a writer. There are pieces of me all over five seasons of Raising Kanan. Did I run a crack empire? No, but I’ve been a father. I’ve been a son. I’ve experienced tragedy. I’ve experienced loss. I’ve had success. So that’s the stuff that we do. And when you can get that, that’s when the real magic happens.”
On being directed by Joseph Sikora this season — someone who was once a character interwoven into and so essential to the Power universe — Miller articulated: “It was fun. As a fellow thespian, it was cool to watch him in this role, and to be directed by Joseph — how awesome this was, and it was his first time. Just to see the choices, the commitment, and the confidence that you have to have to do that. And he speaks our language, so it was very easy to work with him and move — we understood each other. So it made it easy. But it was exciting to be able to be there and to support him as he’s directing — you’re just proud, even maybe when you shouldn’t be. But I think he did an incredible job, and it was just awesome to have him behind the camera.”
Brown echoed: “To what Patina was saying, I agree. The fact that he’s an actor as well, he understands the Power universe flow. So I thought he was really nice, man. He was really open to ideas. I didn’t know it was his first project to direct, but it was great, man. I’d work with him again, for sure. He was great.”
Penn concluded: “And I think it was also, you know, almost like a full-circle moment, right? Because the fact of the matter is, none of us are here without him, right? So it was really meaningful to have all this institutional knowledge on set and to share part of this journey with one of the guys that started it for us, right? So in that respect, there were definitely moments — because I was on season one of Power — where I just stepped back for a second, like, ‘Wow, this is kind of amazing — where we started and where we are.’ So yeah, it was meaningful.”
Catch The Fifth And Final Season Of Power Book III: Raising Kanan On Fridays, Only On Starz!
Editor’s Note: This coverage reflects a condensed summary of the press conference. Some remarks have been paraphrased or edited for clarity and flow.