‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Is the Most Challenging ‘Power’ Spinoff
Set in the ’90s, Power Book III: Raising Kanan centers on the teen years of Kanan Stark (Mekai Curtis). It also unpacks Kanan’s relationship with his drug queenpin mother, Raquel “Raq” Thomas’ (Patina Miller). Raq runs a lucrative drug empire with her brothers Marvin (London Brown) and Lou Lou (Malcolm Mays).
As much as fans have been thrilled with the series, Raising Kanan is the most challenging of the Power spinoffs.
A lot will happen in ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’
So much happened in the Raising Kanan Season 2 finale. Raq realized at the last moment that her unbridled ambition ruined her family and her business. Now with everything in shambles, Raq will have to reconcile her actions and choices and begin rebuilding.
“I do think that in season three, there’s a lot that happens, and there are some new characters that emerge,” showrunner and creator Sascha Penn told Uproxx. “We’ve done, I think, a very decent job pacing this thing out so we can get to where we are now. We’ve spent a good amount of time over the past two seasons developing these characters, making them feel human, and exploring their humanity. I think we’ve done a good enough job that people are responding well, right? So I think if you liked the finale, you’re going to really, really like season three because season three continues on with the groundwork that the finale laid out.”
‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ is the most challenging ‘Power’ spinoff
As much as fans love the ’90s set spinoff, it does have a different feel from Power, Power Book II: Ghost, and Power Book IV: Force. In fact, Penn says that the series is also the most challenging.
“I think this spinoff is the toughest one in a way because we don’t have any of the original cast in it,” he told Uproxx. “It was a real big and courageous fling by the network to be like, ‘Yeah, let’s do a Power spin-off that doesn’t have Tommy, Tariq, [or] any of the original characters. It’s going to be a period piece and it’s going to be entirely new actors that no one’s ever seen before in an entirely new world.’ I think at the end of season two, we can definitively say, ‘You know what? It works, [and] people care.’ That, to me, is really gratifying.”
While some fans have complained about the slower pacing of the series in comparison to the other shows, Penn says he needs to make sure the audience is grounded in these characters’ world and have a deep understanding of who they are as people.
The wardrobe in ‘Raising Kanan’ is difficult to get
In addition to the new cast and the slow pace, the wardrobe of Raising Kanan also has its own challenges. Since the series is set in such a distinctive fashion moment like the ’90s getting and recreating some of the looks is a large task for the wardrobe department.
“That wardrobe of that era is not that easy to find,” Penn told Complex. “Keep in mind; we have to have doubles and triples of it because if it gets dirty or if we have to shoot someone… one of the real challenges is getting wardrobe that was authentic to that particular moment.”
