Luke Cage: Mahershala Ali Cast As Cottonmouth

Marvel has confirmed that Mahershala Ali has been cast as the super-villain Cottonmouth in Netflix’s Luke Cage.

Mahershala Ali started his career in 2001 and has made numerous appearances in television and film. His television credits include Crossing Jordan, Haunted, NYPD Blue, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Handler, Threat Matrix, The 4400, Lie to Me, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, All Signs of Death, Lights Out, Alphas, Alcatraz, and House of Cards.

Ali’s film credits include Making Revolution (2003), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Crossing Over (2009), Predators (2010), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), and Go for Sisters (2013). His most notable films to-date have been The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and the upcoming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015).

There have been two versions of Cottonmouth: the first was Cornell Cottonmouth, created by Len Wein and George Tuska; and the second was Burchell Clemens, created by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary. Mahershala Ali will be playing Cornell Cottonmouth, who will be renamed as Cornell Stokes for Luke Cage.

Cornell Cottonmouth made his first appearance in Power Man #18 (June 1974) as a drug lord in New York. A man named Willis Stryker, a.k.a. Diamondback, stole narcotics from Cottonmouth in order to frame Carl Lucas, a.k.a. Luke Cage. Cage would later infiltrate Cottonmouth’s organization and bring the organization down.

Synopsis: In this Marvel live-action series, a street-fighting ex-con battles crime in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen as the superhero Luke Cage.

Netflix’s Luke Cage is set to premiere all episodes sometime in 2016. Cheo Hodari Coker will serve as the series showrunner, and will star Mike Colter as Luke Cage.

Luke Cage is one of four Marvel/Netflix shows centered around street-level events taking place in New York. The other three are Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist. Like the cinematic universe, all four characters from each show will later converge together in a miniseries event called The Defenders — another superhero team akin to The Avengers.

Next: Luke Cage: Simone Missick cast as Misty Knight

More from Bam Smack Pow

Home/TV