Netflix hires Cheo Hadari Coker as showrunner for Marvel’s Luke Cage
David Farnor | On 01, Apr 2015
Netflix & Marvel Television have hired Cheo Hodari Coker as showrunner for Luke Cage.
The series is the next step in Netflix’s gradually-building world of Hell’s Kitchen superheroes, following Marvel’s Daredevil (which premieres on 10th April) and A.K.A. Jessica Jones, in which Cage will make his first appearance.
The streaming service has made a string of promising choices for its showrunners so far: Steven S. DeKnight is spearheading Daredevil, following work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse with Joss Whedon. Jones, meanwhile, is overseen by Melissa Rosenberg, who has worked on everything from Dexter and The O.C. to Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and The Outer Limits, but also did a largely great job of translating the Twilight franchise to the screen.
Cheo Hodari Coker is no exception. Coker, who is writing the first two episodes, served as a co-executive producer on the second season of Ray Donovan, and prior to that was a supervising producer on the fourth season of the drama SouthLAnd. He started his writing career in journalism and was a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and contributed to VIBE, Rolling Stone, Essence, among other publications. His feature film credits include Fox Searchlight’s rap biopic Notorious.
It has been previously announced that Mike Colter (The Good Wife, American Horror Story: Coven) will play the charismatic Cage. The series will premiere in 2016.