'Raising Kanan': Cast Talks Lou's Death In Season 5 Premiere

By now, you are already in your feelings after witnessing the death of Lou Lou (Malcolm Mays) in the season five premiere of Power Book III: Raising Kanan. Ahead of the episode, we spoke with the show’s cast and showrunner about a shocking moment.

When season 4 came to an end, we were left wondering if Kanan (MeKai Curits) actually did the unthinkable and shot his mother, Raq (Patina Miller), but we learned ahead of the premiere that she would be back and that she would be at war with her seed.

So that left the burning question in our head, who did Kanan shoot at, well, we quickly learned in the premiere of the final season that the young hustler accidentally shot and killed his beloved Uncle Lou, pretty much setting the stage for what is going to interesting dynamic between him and his mother, as well as his other family members Uncle Marvin (London Brown) and his cousin, Jukebox (Hailey Kilgore).

Before the show’s return, CassiusLife’s Bernard “Beanz” Smalls had the opportunity to speak with Miller, Curtis, and showrunner Sascha Penn about Lou Lou’s death, and they each had their own perspectives on it and how fans will react to it.

Sascha Penn Expected Fans To Act Negatively To Lou Lou’s Death

Regarding the fan reaction to Lou Lou’s death, Sascha Penn was very aware it would be met with negativity because the character was a favorite among Power fans.

“I think there’ll be a lot of people who are really pissed off and when you do this, that sort of part of the bargain, which is, yeah, people are going to be angry, people are going to tell me that you should never have done that, huge mistake,” Penn said.

He continues, “And look, on some level I take that as a compliment because it means they care. And so that’s good. Look, sometimes the criticism takes a real personal turn, which isn’t a whole lot of fun, but whatever, man. It’s all part of the game.”

As for the decision to have Kanan kill his uncle, Sascha Penn revealed to CassiusLife that it was made to fit the story’s direction and to help push Kanan toward becoming the heartless person we all got to meet in the original Power franchise.

“I wish I could say that it’s one thing, like this was the thought. It’s never that,” Penn begins. “It’s like, where is the story going? Where is it taking us? And also, let’s not forget that the real premise of this show is how did Kanan become Kanan?”

Sascha Penn:

“And for Kanan to become Kanan, a lot… I mean, if you watch him in Power, he’s a pretty dark character. And so some real ill shit had to happen to Kanan with Kanan to get him to that place. This is one of those things. And yes, it’s tragic, it’s horrific, it’s awful, it’s violent. It’s all these things. And I will say, Kanan is conflicted about it. It’s not like it’s something that he feels in any way good about. But again, it speaks to sort of the psychological profile of this character and how he ended up being who he became.”

Patina Miller Reveals Lou’s On-Screen Death Was Devastating To Her

Patina Miller and Malcolm Mays shared a lot of scenes together, so it should come as no surprise that Lou’s death hit her hard.

Speaking with CassiusLife, she broke down why Lou’s death will hit fans so hard, given that fans have been through so much with the character.

“I mean, this character was loved. Loved so much. But that’s the thing with the show and building these characters, shout out to Sascha, our showrunner, and all the writers on the show,” Miller explained. “We spent five seasons building these characters up, stacking on layers to them, falling in love, falling out of love with them. But with this particular character, we watched him go through so much these past few seasons.”

She continued, “And so then for that to be taken away, I do think that they’re not going to be ready for that. And I think it will hurt, but that’s what it should feel, right? That’s the beauty of creating a show like this and not going fast in the storytelling. Being able to tell a dynamic story that’s able to sit and breathe so that you love these characters so that when one goes away, you feel it. And I do think that they will feel it heavily. And for me, it was devastating because I love Malcolm Mays. This won’t air until after, so it’s not a secret.”

Miller went on to describe their working relationship with glowing words, praising his acting ability.

“But I love Malcolm. Malcolm is an incredible actor. What him and I were able to do with our characters and to really tell the story of that relationship was incredible. And I feel so lucky and I’ve learned so much by just being in space with him. And he’s incredible at what he does, and I’m happy that I had this long with him, but it was very, very devastating to open on such a heavy, heavy scene.”

MeKai Curtis Talks About Kanan’s Fatal “Oopsies”

Speaking about Lou’s death, MeKai Curtis reaction to learning Kanan was going to kill his uncle was more like him being a bit stunned, but not shocked becuase he knew someone was going to go because it wasn’t going to be Raq.

“This kid.” I think that’s the biggest reaction everybody has because that was my reaction reading it. I’m like, “This mother… All right. All right.” It wasn’t shocking in any way, shape, or form,” Curtis revealed to CassiusLife.

“I knew going into season five that we were going to be doing a lot of the things. I especially knew he wasn’t going to shoot Raq right there in that moment. So I’m like, something’s going to happen, whether it was he just shot at the wall or somebody comes in. But I think that’s a testament to Kanan and his oopsies all the time. It was an incident that he didn’t mean to happen, but in his fit of passion, things happen.”

You can watch the new season of Raising Kanan on Starz and the full interview below.

‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Exclusive: Patina Miller, MeKai Curtis & Sascha Penn Talk Lou Lou’s Death was originally published on cassiuslife.com