Omari Hardwick Was Asked If Ghost Is Really Dead in ‘Power’

Is Ghost really dead on Power? It’s a never-ending question among fans of the series.

The character, portrayed by Omari Hardwick, appeared to die in the show’s final season after being shot by his son, Tariq. But for various reasons, some think he might have secretly survived.

Hardwick was asked about his true fate amid ongoing speculation about what really happened to Ghost. But his response isn’t a direct answer.

Omari Hardwick was asked about what happened to Ghost in ‘Power’ exactly

Hardwick was on the Pivot podcast with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor when he was asked the million-dollar question surrounding Ghost.

“Everybody wanna know, is Ghost really dead, bro?” asked Taylor. “And why they wanna know, Fred?” Hardwick replied. “… You know, when people ask it, they go, ‘Yo there was no coffin. Yo, you didn’t actually take your last breath on the ground — or at least, the camera didn’t necessarily show that. It showed you trying to make sure that Tommy didn’t shoot your son.'”

The continued fanfare for Ghost seemed to make him not want to answer the question. “I won’t ever say it because, Fred, I know you don’t want me to say it,” Hardwick continued. However, Ghost’s death has been confirmed multiple times in the past by series creator and showrunner Courtney Kemp.

Omari Hardwick had a different idea for Ghost’s death on ‘Power’

For Hardwick, Ghost’s death was a fitting conclusion for the character, but he had a different idea for how it should’ve happened.

“The way I would have liked to see it play out is a life for a life,” he told the hosts. Hardwick compared his idea to the Denzel Washington movie Man on Fire, which ends with Washington’s character, an ex-CIA agent named John Creasy, sacrificing himself for someone else. “That’s what I would have wanted,” Hardwick continued. “I envisioned Tommy [Egan] getting caught up in some sh**, and Ghost had decidedly, after trying every turn … felt [like nothing was working.]”

“… After that, exhausting all of the options to be bigger and to be everything he wanted to be … what I envisioned was me having to go give a life for a life,” he continued. “I probably shared it with Courtney first, but when I shared it with Joseph [Sikora, the actor who plays Tommy], he was like, ‘Yo, I love it!’ And I said, instead of Romeo and Juliet, it’s like Romeo and Romeo.”

By that, he meant Tommy would have taken his life in his grief over Ghost’s death. But instead, Ghost wound up losing his life to his son, who had been angry with Ghost for his lies and treatment of their family. Tommy was so devastated by what happened that he decided to leave New York to start anew, setting the stage for his spinoff, Power Book IV: Force.

Would Omari Hardwick ever come back as Ghost?

Although Ghost is no longer around in the living form, Hardwick has ideas for how he could come back if writers ever wanted.

“Hell, you name the guy Ghost and so there’s always, to me, a possibility of being just that,” he previously said on the podcast Higher Learning With Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay. “… He really lives in a ghost space at this point, so now that we know he’s not on Earth, there is a reality where you can have flashbacks or [something else].”

He continued: “I would come back perhaps in a spinoff just in a space to give leverage to the show to go, OK, Ghost is speaking to Tariq, but we know he’s not actually there. OK, Ghost is in Tommy’s head, but is he really there? You know, just leaving that mystique. But I’d always be open. [Power] changed my life.”

We’ll see if that ever materializes. In the meantime, fans can watch Power and the Power spinoffs now on Starz.