Power Book III: Raising Kanan is back for its highly-anticipated second season (along with an early season 3 renewal). After the shocking events of the season 1 finale, season 2 picks up in the aftermath of all the chaos. Raq ordered Kanan to kill Howard, who also happens to be his father, but Howard is still alive and still carrying his and Raq’s secret with him.
Showrunner Sascha Penn spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife about how Raq and Kanan’s relationship will evolve in season 2 with this game-changing secret hanging over their heads. Sascha admitted that this secret will eventually “erupt” and there will be a “reckoning.” He also weighed in on Jukebox’s complicated relationship with her mother and Howard’s legacy. Read our Q&A below:
In the wake of what’s happened with Howard and what Raq expects of Kanan at this point, where does Kanan and Raq’s relationship go in season 2?
Sascha Penn: I think it’s the central focus in a way of season 2 because I think what starts to happen is Kanan starts to have doubts about his mother, and part and parcel of having doubts about his mother is him having doubts about himself because he’s existed within the context of his mother for his entire life. She has been his North Star and his son for so long that all of a sudden to learn that his mother may not be who he thought she was is really difficult and shocking for him and really compels him to try to understand who he is as just Kanan rather than Raq’s son.
And with that, there’s the whole Howard element of it all. Will Kannan find out this season that Howard is his father?
Sascha Penn: I don’t want to give away too much, but what I would say is the secrets that we have fester and simmer until they can’t anymore, and then they come out in unexpected ways. I think what we can expect in season 2 is that that secret looms large over the entire season. It’s something that, at some point, there has to be a reckoning.
By the end of the season finale, neither of them knew that Howard was still alive. Does Raq understand the magnitude of how bad this could get for her?
Sascha Penn: She does. She starts to second guess herself. Not just as sort of a businesswoman but also as a mother, which is the condition of being any parent. You’re constantly second-guessing yourself. There are some seeds of doubt that have been planted for her. They sort of walk along this tightrope, the two of them, across the entire season. Each one of them not wanting to give up too much, and at the same time trying to say something that they can’t quite say because they don’t know what it means if they say it. It’s pretty explosive, and I think by the end of the season, it does erupt.
What does Marvin and Jukebox’s relationship look like in season 2 after that devastating confrontation at the end of last season?
Sascha Penn: It’s damaged in really profound ways. I think the question that we grapple with in season 2 is whether it’s irreparably damaged, whether the two of them can ever have any sort of healing whatsoever. That’s a big part of Marvin’s journey across the second season is trying to figure out if he can redeem himself. And for Jukebox, it’s about whether she can forgive her father for something that, I would argue, is probably unforgivable. It’s a real journey that they both take across the second season, and most of the time, it’s a parallel journey.
Jukebox’s mother is also coming into the picture, played by LaToya Luckett. How does that relationship start between Jukebox and her mother?
Sascha Penn: Obviously, Jukebox is searching for something. She’s searching for some sort of adult in her life that she can love and trust and believe in. She finds her mother, and we’ll have to see whether that’s the best idea. But I will tell you this: it is brilliantly realized by LaToya Luckett. She’s spectacular.
Howard was already staring his mortality in the face with leukemia. But now that he nearly died at the hands of his own son, how does the shooting impact him and how he views life?
Sascha Penn: He starts to think about his legacy in a way, and thematically speaking, that’s a big part of the second season. Because what Howard starts to realize after this brush with death is that he doesn’t have much. His life on a certain level has been nothing more than his job. He starts to wonder what he’s going to leave behind. He starts to wonder what impact has he actually had on this world and on this earth. I think once you start thinking along those lines, once you start asking yourself these existential questions, the answers you come back with are difficult and they’re tough. Across the second season, that’s what he’s asking himself: what is my legacy? What am I leaving behind?