A fan was upset that Luke Cage was fighting more Black people than white people in the Netflix series of the same name.
“Obviously, Luke Cage was created in the 1970s, but did y'all [peep] how the Marvel series depicted him having to fight more Black people to save Harlem than white villains?” an X user wrote, adding, “I did.”
Show creator Cheo Hodari Coker responded to the tweet with a joke: “I was trying to keep Black people gainfully employed. LOL. Just saying.”
To his surprise, his response was a hit. At the time of this writing, his tweet now has 100,000 likes and 11 million views, which prompted him to follow up. “Can't believe how viral this went,” he wrote.
Coker responded to another fan who was on his side. “If [Cage] was only fighting white people, they would complain that there are too many white folks in Harlem,” the X user wrote.
“A white person didn't have a speaking part for 13 minutes and major dialogue until minute 29,” Coker replied. “People actually complained. Scarfe's scene in the club got cut, so it wasn't even intentional.”
Luke Cage ran for two seasons on Netflix, from 2016 to 2018, with Mike Colter playing the titular character. The show followed Cage, who gains super strength and unbreakable skin in an experiment. He later becomes a hero in Harlem, fighting villains to maintain the integrity of his neighborhood.
The cast is rounded out by Rosario Dawson, Mahershala Ali, Simone Missick, and Theo Rossi, among others.
