The ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Cast Was Thrilled When ‘Sopranos’ Actor Michael Rispoli Joined Season 2
Power Book III: Raising Kanan chronicles the formative years of Kanan Stark (Mekai Curtis). Following in the footsteps of his drug queenpin mother, Raquel “Raq” Thomas (Patina Miller), and his uncles, Marvin (London Brown) and Lou Lou (Malcolm Mays), Kanan is getting a crash course in the family business.
In season 2, Raq’s business dealing have only gotten more dangerous, as have her ambitions. She’s found herself engaged with the Newark mob and their boss, Sal Boselli (Sopranos alum Michael Rispoli). When the Raising Kanan cast learned that Rispoli was joining the cast, they were thrilled.
Raq has been dealing with the mob in ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Season 2
Raq is determined to be bigger than a Queens-based drug queenpin. Therefore, despite her brothers’ apprehension, she expanded her business into Newark, which is mob territory. As a result, she has earned the wrath of Sal Boselli, the powerful, charismatic Italian mob boss of Newark, New Jersey.
After much turmoil, Raq and Boselli have come to a truce, but the truce has put Unique (Joey Bada$$), Raq’s former rival, in charge of her Newark outfit. Clearly, this is going to be disastrous.
The ‘Raising Kanan’ Cast was thrilled when ‘Sopranos’ alum Michael Rispoli joined the cast
When the Raising Kanan cast learned that Rispolo was joining the cast, they were thrilled. The actor portrayed mob boss Jackie Aprile on The Sopranos from 1999 to 2001. He has also been seen in The Godfather of Harlem and The Deuce.
“Everybody started texting the group chat, and we all lost it. It was pretty wild,” Curtis told Insider about when the cast learned Rispoli would be joining for season 1.
“It turned into a humbling kind of thing because it’s like, wow, someone of that sort of caliber in that sort of room as well is ready to rock and play a little time with us,” he added. “It was exciting. I think there were a lot of emotions that kind of rolled through as soon as we saw him on the zoom that day.”
Inside Raq’s business plans
Now that Raq is in deep with the mob and forced to do business with Unique, she seems to be standing between a rock and a hard place. Certainly, Lou and Marvin aren’t sure why she’s chosen to go in this direction. However, Miller is insisting that her character has some major plans for her business up her sleeve.
“She’s sort of mapped out what role everyone plays,” Miller told Insider. “Her vision is very, very big. And so she’s about expanding.” As we know, Raq originally had plans to turn the business over to Lou. However, her baby brother seems to be done with the business and wants to focus instead on his music.
Now, it appears that Raq is determined to leave the family business to Kanan.
