‘Power’: Actor Shane Johnson Says Cast Initially Didn’t Know Who Shot Ghost Either
For the second half of Power Season 6, the series dedicated itself to answering one question: Who shot Ghost? Though there seems to be a segment of the fan base who still believes Ghost is alive, he’s dead, and the audience saw his last moments with Tommy.
The prevailing question heading into the show’s finale episodes revolved around which character pulled the trigger. Saxe? Paz? Tommy? Tasha? Dre? Councilman Tate? Tariq?
Each of them had motive, but everyone knows who did it: Tariq. But behind the scenes, the cast was kept in the dark for months about who actually killed Ghost. Shane Johnson — who plays Cooper Saxe — revealed why.
‘Power’ showrunner Courtney Kemp purposely used different points of view
Power season 6 wrapped up an entire series that centered on James St. Patrick/Ghost and his relationships with Tommy, Angela, his family, and the law. Toward the end, he had no shortage of enemies and beefs, including with his own son.
That’s why Power showrunner/creator Courtney Kemp wanted to set up the story as a whodunnit mystery. She repeatedly spoke about drawing inspiration from Dallas and the Japanese film, Rashomon. Kemp told Deadline, “I guess what I would say is that it’s more of a Rashomon kind of structure, where it’s telling you story through specific characters.”
The final five episodes slowly unraveled who committed the crime and who almost did it. Shortly before the series finale aired, a leak threatened to blow up the storyline by revealing the real shooter.
After the last episode dropped, Kemp shared that they filmed multiple endings. It’s true.
Shane Johnson says each cast member pulled the trigger on Ghost during filming
Shane Johnson appeared on an Instagram Live session with “Tea With Tia” and spoke at length about his career and all things Power. Particularly, he talked about Saxe’s trajectory on the show and whether anyone knew the truth about Ghost’s shooter. At first, no one was aware.
“They filmed everybody shooting Ghost,” said Johnson. “From Paz to Tariq to Tommy to Tasha to me to Dre — it was like everybody took a shot at Ghost. We all did it. We all filmed it, and we didn’t know who it was gonna be.”
Johnson explained that the writing team didn’t want everyone to know the outcome months in advance. He added that cast and crew were clueless for a while.
“They wanted to have the option to spring it on us,” he said. Johnson said heading into episode 10 for season 6, the team didn’t want them to know right away. Eventually, they learned the truth.
Kemp once revealed Tommy’s alternate ending with Ghost
In February 2020, Kemp spoke with TV Line and shared that each of the seven cast members filmed their gunshot scenes with Ghost in one night. She also spoke on Joseph Sikora’s performance in unused footage of Tommy killing Ghost.
“Tommy’s was amazing. Joe’s performance, which no one will ever see, was amazing. It was amazing. But you know, we were not going to have Tommy do it. So none of the actors knew who was going to do it at that time, so they were all giving 100 percent, because they didn’t know,” she told the outlet.
Fans can currently stream all episodes of the original Power and catch up with season 1 of Power Book II: Ghost on Starz.
