“You don’t need to be bulletproof to be a superhero. Black women have always had superpowers, turning pain into progress.”
Netflix will release the second season of Luke Cage on June 22 and bring the iconic villain Black Mariah—Mariah Dillard in the show—front and center. Honestly, after this trailer, it’s hard not to root for her just a little bit. Normally, villains give you chills of the, “holy damn that’s cold” variety, but Mariah’s monologue in the highly anticipated trailer gave off “Yaaaas queen” chills.
The main villains in the first season of Luke Cage didn’t land as well as they could have, but it looks like the switch up will be enough to make the second season even better. Alfre Woodard slays in the role, with menacing inflections that make her character fascinating to watch. After all, “Harlem doesn’t need a hero; it needs a queen.”