‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’: Character Backstory Is a Huge Part of Season 2
Power Book III: Raising Kanan centers on the teen years of the infamous Kanan Stark (Mekai Curtis). The series is set in Queens during the ’90s, where Kanan lives with his drug queenpin mother, Raquel “Raq” Thomas’ (Patina Miller). Raq runs her empire with her brothers Marvin (London Brown) and Lou Lou (Malcolm Brown).
Raising Kanan Season 1 introduced us to this world, but season 2 is about character backstory.
Kanan will undergo a huge transformation in ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Season 2
Fans were stunned at the end of episode 203, “Sleeping Dogs” when Detective Howard (Omar Epps) revealed to Kanan that he is the teen’s biological father. While Kanan seemed skeptical, something about the revelation also intrigued him.
Though his transformation has already begun, Kanan is set to go through a major transition this season. “Season two is the continuation of season one in terms of the explosiveness,” Curtis told PopSugar. “There’s a lot of new information that’s going to be revealed, and there are a lot of new feelings and this new sense of self with every character that’s involved. It’s going to be a really, really interesting ride.”
Character backstory is a huge part of season 2
Though we understood who Kanan was before Raising Kanan, the series’ first season set up the world around him. Now with season 2, we are doing deep dives into the characters themselves. “Season two, I think there’s gonna be a lot more color, like as far as the coloring of the characters,” Mays told Cassius Life. “So, explanations as to why they do what they do, watching them go along the process of doing what they do, we’ll, we’ll watch more, instead of establishing the world as a whole. A lot of the first season was just establishing the world. I think now it’s establishing people.”
The show is also looking to address another huge theme.
Nature vs. nurture is a huge theme in ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Season 2
In addition to unpacking each of the main characters on Raising Kanan, creator Sascha Penn is also interested in addressing the age-old question of nature versus nurture. After all, we saw that Kanan could have easily gone in one direction if he’d chosen to go to the elite high school that his mother wanted. Instead, he wanted to stick around Queens and become indoctrinated into the drug business.
“[Nature vs. nurture] is fundamental to the story and the tension. I think that’s the question we all sort of ask ourselves as human beings but also as parents,” Penn told The Koalition. “I think that’s really part of Raquel’s journey. ‘These choices I’m making not just for myself but for my son, what are they going to do to him?’ We know the answer to that; we know that at least they’re going to contribute in some way to whom [Kanan] becomes.”
Kanan might be a lost cause, but other characters in the series may still go in a different direction.
