*Omar Epps is back for season two of the hit STARZ series “Power Book III: Raising Kanan.” Epps portrays Detective Malcolm Howard. A south Jamaica Queens detective who gets off on harassing the residents of his neighborhood to keep them in line and clean up one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in New York back in the 90s.
Howard was on the wrong side of two bullets at the end of season one at the hand of Kanan (MeKai Curtis,) who was encouraged by his mother Raq Thomas (Patina Miller) to take out the cop. However, Detective Howard—and the secret that he is Kanan’s real father—are alive and well, much to Raq’s dismay. This season we’ll see what Howard does with this information and how Kanan will react when he learns about it.
EURweb’s Jill Munroe spoke with Epps and his co-star Shanley Caswell, who plays Det. Shannon Burke, about what to expect from the two partners this season as they learn to trust each other and their relationships with Kanan and Jukebox (Hailey Kilgore.)
Epps said this season, we will see Howard trying to make sense of the idea that he has a son, but we’ll also find out if his intentions are genuine.
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“I think he wants to believe certain things about Kanan, but at the end of the day, this dude that shot him,” Epps explained. “So in that way, it’s like, he’s trying to get to know him, but that’s something he would have done when he was Kanan’s age. So Howard is trying to develop trust. But he knows Raq. Howard knows Raq. And so he doesn’t know how much she’s instilled in Kanan, so he’s playing chess with him. But because he was faced with his mortality, he has this vulnerability now.”
The actor continued, “So when it comes to Kanan, it’s becoming a soft spot. And he’s trying to harden that again because he can’t be played. He’s like, you are not going to play me. And so there is this give and take. But, as it unfolds in season two, we’ll see if his intent is genuine or if he’s just manipulating the situation to gain control.”
Caswell noted that the trust between the two partners is low, and Burke is working through how to be there for Howard but still not slip on the job.
“In season two, we see the trust between Shannon and Howard falter slightly. She wants to believe him and do her job and duty as a cop. But she has a tie to Howard. So she wants to figure out what happened to him because she worries about him as a partner and somebody she’s grown to respect,” said Caswell.
Watch our full conversation with Mr. Epps via the clip below.
New episodes of “Raising Kanan” air Sundays at 9:00 PM on STARZ.
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