After almost a year of impatiently waiting, fans of the drama Power are finally having their stress alleviated. The culturally impactful program has returned.
The show left off with a cliffhanger in 2016 as the lead character of Ghost, played by Omari Hardwick, was arrested for a murder he did not commit. This season, the fourth overall, we’ll see how the usually in-control street lord will function behind bars. One major obstacle he faces is a prison guard named Marshall Williams played by the deceased comic icon Charlie Murphy. We learn early on that Williams has a deep vendetta against Ghost.
“So cool. So cool,” Hardwick recently told REVOLT TV about working with Murphy. “I did a poem and we had it read… And I tried to write it on behalf of what I felt the cast members would have said. It [was] given to his three kids and it’s read by his cousin at the funeral where Eddie [Murphy] obviously eulogized him as much as anybody did. It feels good. I worked with Whitney [Houston]; as you know, she passed away weeks later. I worked with Charlie, he passed away weeks later. I take it as a honor if that makes sense. To work with Whitney and say goodbye. To work with Charlie and say goodbye.”
Murphy died of leukemia in April shortly after filming his role in Power. Hardwick says Murphy was handpicked by show runner Courtney Kemp Agboh.
“Courtney, shout-outs to her. I think she knew he was sick and she gave him a job,” the actor opined. “We didn’t know. We didn’t know his level of sickness, but he’s a tough cat.”
Murphy was so tough, he actually handled the scene himself when his Marshall character had to lay hands on Ghost big bossman-style.
“I’m sitting on the set and I’m like, ‘Wait, that day I did that, he was sick.’ Hats off to him. When you see some of those scenes, you’re going to be in awe. That’s cool that y’all honor him by asking that.”
Power continues every Sunday night on STARZ.