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Power Book III: Raising Kanan is the coming-of-age story of Kanan Stark (Mekai Curtis). His mother, Raquel “Raq” Thomas’ (Patina Miller), is a drug queenpin who initially has a great deal of control over her son. However, over the course of the first season, that control slipped.

Now, Detective Malcolm Howard (Omar Epps), Raq’s nemesis and Kanan’s biological father, is further upsetting the mother/son dynamic. However, in real life, Curtis says he gets the best advice from Epps.

Mekai Curtis as Kanan Stark and Omar Epps as Detective Malcolm Howard sitting in a car conversing in 'Power Book III: Raising Kanan'
Mekai Curtis as Kanan Stark and Omar Epps as Detective Malcolm Howard in ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ | Starz

Detective Howard and Kanan have an unlikely connection in ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’

When we first met Detective Howard in season 1, we thought he was just a meddling cop with a bit of an obsession with Raq. We also know he had formed a bit of an alliance with Unique (Joey Bada$$), a rival dealer in Queens.

However, it turns out his obsession with Raq is a bit more interesting than we first assumed. It became especially clear when Raq ordered Kanan to kill the detective. Though Howard survived, things are going to get even more interesting.

“You’re actually going to get to see a little bit of how [Detective Howard] really struggles with what to do in this situation and how he feels about his relationship [with Kanan],” Curtis told PopSugar. “It’s going to be a lot. There’s going to be a lot of emotions thrown up in the air.”

Mekai Curtis says he gets the best advice from Omar Epps

While Kanan and Detective Howard are just trying to figure things out on Raising Kanan, Curtis and Epps have become close in real life.

“Omar… he’s always full of game,” Curtis told Express UK. “He’s always full of knowledge and wisdom. He’s been doing this for so damn long. Any chance he gets… I’m a super quiet person. I stay in the corner, and I observe a lot of the time. I’m grateful to be in a place and a space where people understand that. They’re not necessarily intimidated by it at all. I think they actually see themselves in that. That allows them to give me these pieces of information and wisdom, just regardless. They’re always spitting game to us and wisdom, and I’m just there soaking it all in. Any chance I get to work with O, it’s a learning experience, for sure. Whether it’s about the business, about character work, about just being a man, it’s dope to have that around.”

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Detective Howard’s backstory will be revealed in ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’

Detective Howard lives a reclusive and secretive life. The only people we’ve seen him interact with are his partner, Detective Shannon Burke, and a sex worker he calls upon regularly. From what we understand, he was undercover as a young detective in the ’70s when he met Raq and began a relationship with her. (She was underage at the time.)

However, she was dating the gangster Def-Con Stark and got pregnant with Kanan. Until last season, Howard didn’t realize that Kanan was his son. Now, we will get a clearer picture of how Howard really is.

“Season two, I think there’s gonna be a lot more color, like as far as the coloring of the characters,” Malcolm Mays, who portrays Lou Lou 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.” 

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