Two months plus a day after Netflix and Marvel pulled the plug on a widely expected third season of Luke Cage, creator Cheo Hodari Coker has found a new long-term home with Amazon Studios.
In a stealth and strategic move in the television talent wars, the House of Bezos has signed now ex-Cage showrunner Coker and his new Fighting 99th Entertainment shingle to an overall deal to develop and produce new series. The finances of the agreement were kept under lock, but the deal is for three years, I’ve learned.
The arrangement will also see Coker based primarily out of his adopted hometown of Seattle. The Emerald City is, of course, also home to Amazon’s main HQ.
“Amazon is the future, and their bespoke, specific approach to building groundbreaking shows offers an amazing opportunity, one that I’m incredibly thankful for,” Coker, the former music journalist and Notorious scribe, said today of the deal. “I can’t think of a better place to launch the first shows developed under my Seattle-based Fighting 99th Entertainment banner, and am excited for people to see what we have in store.”
Amazon had the pre-Christmas love too.
“We’re very excited to welcome Cheo to the Amazon Studios family,” said Vernon Sanders, co-head of Television at Amazon Studios. “From Notorious to Luke Cage, Cheo is a provocative, revolutionary storyteller, and we’re happy he’ll be creating those kinds of bold new series exclusively for Prime Video.”
In many ways, Coker expected to be entering this holiday season deep into scripts on the 10-episode Season 3 of Luke Cage. However, with five early scripts already delivered, the Mike Colter-led series about Harlem’s Hero was suddenly canceled October 19.
With the bigger picture of internal Marvel battles, Netflix’s shift to shorter seasons for its originals and the upcoming Disney+ streaming service on the horizon, the move came exactly a week after fellow Defender Iron Fist also had a third-season rug pulled out from beneath it, and the same day the long awaited and critically acclaimed Season 3 of Daredevil launched.
Not that the Man Without Fear lasted that much longer. Daredevil was canned on November 29, though Marvel and Netflix vaguely promised more “adventures,” suggesting Hell’s Kitchen’s protector could show up in the upcoming Punisher or Jessica Jones seasons still set for the streaming service.
No word yet on what adventures Coker is cooking up for his Amazon debut, but a look at the Instagram of the man who penned the story for Creed II hints at what he is reading:
Coker is repped by CAA, AB Fischer of Literate Management, and lawyer Darrell D. Miller of Fox Rothschild.
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