‘Power’: 50 Cent Hated Omari Hardwick’s Idea for Ghost’s Death
Based on executive-producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Power creator Courtney Kemp’s late father, James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick) stood at the center of Power. Torn between wanting to become a legit businessman and the seducing underworld where he loomed large as a drug kingpin, Ghost never could truly escape his past.
Knowing that his character wouldn’t make it out alive, Hardwick pitched an idea for Ghost’s death, but 50 Cent hated it.
Omari Hardwick wanted Ghost to die after ‘Power’ Season 7
Several seasons into the show, Hardwick came up with an idea for Ghost’s death. He thought it would be poetic of Ghost and his best friend Tommy Egan (Joseph Sikora), died at the same time.
“What I email her was that it’s season 7 and Ghost, like Denzel [Washington] in Man on Fire, an eye for an eye, a life for a life, he has to go help his brother, Tommy,” The Mothership actor told Entertainment Weekly. “Tommy does what he shouldn’t do and Ghost has to give his life. I share with her, she likes it. I shared it with Joe, he’s a big brain, a hell of a writer, and he excitingly goes, “Oh man, let’s take it a whole nother level.’ And we create Romeo and Romeo. So when Ghost dies, Tommy can’t live without Ghost and Tommy takes his life and he falls on top of the body of Ghost. That’s what I thought should happen.”
However, things didn’t quite pan out that way.
50 Cent hated Omari Hardwick’s idea for Ghost’s death
Instead of Hardwick’s idea of Ghost and Tommy’s fate being tied, Ghost was murdered by his teenage son Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr.) Tommy watched in horror as his best friend bled out on the floor. Though Kemp considered Hardwick’s idea for Ghost’s death, Kemp told Entertainment Weekly that 50 Cent was not at all a fan of the idea.
Instead, Tommy lived to see another day.
“The reason that Tommy is alive is that we had a show about selling drugs, and not just selling drugs, but the consequences, the aftermath, the destruction,” Sikora explained via Express. “But ultimately you only had one character who started out wanting to sell drugs and finished wanting to sell drugs, and now that backdrop has outlasted the character.”
We will see Tommy’s journey continue in the forthcoming Power Book IV: Force.
Why did ‘Power’ end?
Ultimately it was Kemp’s decision to end Power when it was at the top of its game. She was ready to center on other characters and focus on new stories.
“I had run out of story,” Kemp told Ad Week. “I didn’t want to continue to make a bad show. “I got inspired by the Marvel Universe. As someone who watched the X-Men cartoon as a kid, I just love the idea of creating the universe and how they did it, which was—and obviously I copied this—taking specific characters and looking at them in new ways.”
