‘Power’: Jukebox Was Never Supposed to Die In Season 3
Jukebox has been a staple of the Power Universe since season 3 of the original series. Originally portrayed by Anika Noni Rose, when fans first met the character she was a dirty NYPD officer willing to do whatever it took to get what she wanted. The only people she seemed to trust were her girlfriend and her cousin Kanan (Curtis “50” Cent Jackson).
Fans would learn more about the character in Power Book III: Raising Kanan in Hailey Kilgore’s portrayal of teen Jukebox. It turns out, however, that Jukebox was never supposed to die in season 3.
How did Jukebox die on ‘Power’?
Fans will remember Jukebox’s death as one of the most shocking deaths in the Power Universe. Over the course of the season, Jukebox and Kanan got increasingly close to Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr.) as a way to hurt his father, James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick). However, at the end, when Kanan is supposed to kill Tariq he couldn’t do it, having formed a real bond with the teen. Instead, he turned his gun on his cousin, killing her instead.
Jukebox was never supposed to die in ‘Power’ Season 3
Fans were stunned when Kanan shot his own cousin in an effort to protect Tariq. However, that’s never how it was supposed to happen. In a recent Instagram Live, Power creator Courtney Kemp revealed that she and the Power writer’s room had big plans for the character into season 4.
Kemp revealed that Jukebox was originally supposed to return to New York City and cause chaos in the lives of the St. Patricks’. However, she had to switch gears when Rose was cast as the lead in the BET series, The Quad. As a result, they had to kill off the character much earlier than expected.
Thankfully, Kilgore has picked off where Rose left off with the character and the character live on in Power Book III: Raising Kanan.
Why did Kanan feel so indebted to Jukebox?
Since Raising Kanan introduces fans to a teenage Kanan and Jukebox we begin to understand more of their dynamic and why Kanan was so deferential to his cousin and no one else. In the first season of Kanan, we learn that Jukebox’s girlfriend Nicole (Annabelle Zasowski) died after overdosing on some crack cocaine. It was a batch that Kanan cooked up which Nicole got her hands on.
Nicole’s death was the beginning of the shift in the dynamic between the cousins. “Get to see how Jukebox turned into this person that kind of pulls the strings and rocks Kanan which you never thought would happen,” one Redditor explained via Express. “Because to start, he’s a terrifying force on his own. But again, going back to being something that not only Power fans can watch. I’m excited for just people in general, fans, not fans. I’m excited, for people to see a family story. I’m excited to hopefully relate to anything that’s happening in this story because, while it is a family story, really it’s about feeling, emotion, love. It’s about environment, it’s about choices (and) what that does and how that affects you.”
