5 Great Moments From The New ‘Luke Cage’ Trailer

Luke Cage

Was a trailer where a bulletproof man brawls a hallway full of dudes set to ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya‘ not good enough for you? If so, then the new, full-length trailer for ‘Luke Cage‘, Marvel and Netflix’s latest collaboration, has arrived.

A look at the supporting cast of Cage’s world (Misty Knight!), a promise of an engaging arc involving power and responsibility, a great use of ‘Heart Is Full’ by Miike Snow, and of course, Luke Cage pummeling people like no tomorrow. There’s a lot to like here, and with a crack team of experts and the best information software money can buy (or just one dude looping a trailer over and over and taking notes), we’ve looked through the trailer and picked out some of the coolest moments and most exciting Easter Eggs.

5. Claire Temple Is Back

Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple has become one of the biggest surprises of the Netflix-side MCU, acting as the Agent Coulson of this part of the universe. Following a major role on ‘Daredevil‘ and an appearance on ‘Jessica Jones’, Temple is back for ‘Luke Cage‘, seemingly acting as Luke’s moral center of sorts. As Cage is doubting his role as a “hero”, Temple is the one to call him to action, seeing as how she has some experience with heroes. Now if she could just arrange a meeting between Luke and a certain horned friend of hers.

4. The Villain, Cottonmouth

With characters like the Kingpin and Kilgrave, the Marvel/Netflix shows have taken potentially two-dimensional mustache-twirlers and turned them into morally complex and ultimately tragic figures. We’ll see if that trend continues with Cornell Stokes, AKA Cottonmouth, played by ‘Hunger Games‘ actor Mahershala Ali. There are definitely some strong Kingpin vibes with him – a tough crime lord who does what it takes to get ahead – but he already promises to be a formidable foe for Cage. We see him being sneakily charismatic, we see him being not-at-all afraid to get his hands dirty, and we even get this delightfully on-the-nose moment shown above.

3. Luke Cage’s Motivation

In the comics, in ‘Jessica Jones’, and it seems in here, Luke Cage is not the first guy to run out and save the day. As we see here, he’s a reluctant hero who’s afraid of what he’s got, and he’d rather lay low and work at the local mom-and-pop barber shop than be a superhero. But when that barber shop is shot up (presumably by Stokes’ men) and his loved ones are in danger, that may be the kick Cage needs to suit up and fight back.

2. Luke Cage in Action

It’s hard to pick one favorite moment of Cage-action in this trailer. Halting a speeding car. Facing down a rain of bullets. Flipping baddies into the air. One moron thinking he can land a punch on Cage and very quickly realizing his mistake. It’s just super satisfying to see this guy doing his thing and annihilating anyone who comes his way. Whenever a superhero is adapted, there’s always a fear that they’ll water him down, make him weaker, or not let him use the full extent of his powers. Clearly and thankfully, this doesn’t seem to be the case here.

 1. The Origin (Feat. THE TIARA!!!)

The appearance of a tiara and some armbands should not make me as happy as it does, but here we are. Right at the beginning, we get a tease of Luke Cage’s Wolverine-esque origin (though to be fair, Cage was created before Wolvie). A wrongfully-imprisoned inmate at Seagate Prison, he volunteers for an experiment, and, in the process, is given unbreakable skin and superhuman strength. It’s cool to get a glimpse at his backstory, but you know what’s even cooler to get a glimpse of? THE TIARA!

The tiara/armband look is Luke Cage’s original design, but while it’s certainly beloved by nostalgic fans, it’s definitely a product of the 70’s. But the fact that we get even a passing reference is impressive, and it just shows how much care and effort the people over at Marvel and Netflix are putting into these things.

Fun fact: the production name for ‘Luke Cage’ was, in fact, ‘Tiara’. Nice.

Luke Cage‘ stars Mike Colter as the titular hero, and it premieres on Netflix on September 30, which promises to be a very early and particularly Sweet Christmas for Marvel fans everywhere.

Alan Gunn

Alan Gunn

Cali boy. Disciple of Spider-Man. Still a million bucks shy of being a millionaire.