Luke Cage has not even hit television screens yet, and there is already talk about Simone Missick’s breakout performance as detective Misty Knight.
Like Luke Cage himself, Misty Knight is an homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Knight is a black detective with an enormous afro who protects the mean streets of Harlem. After losing an arm in a bombing incident, she was given a super-powered cybernetic replacement from none other than Tony Stark himself. Knight has been a love interest for both Luke Cage and Danny Rand (Iron Fist) at various times. She is an expert marksman and hand-to-hand combatant.
Simone Missick is slated to play Misty in the upcoming Luke Cage series on Netflix. The character is so beloved by fans that when Messick was introduced at the Luke Cage panel at San Diego Comic Con, she reportedly received louder cheers and applause than Mike Collier who plays Cage himself.
“I was completely surprised, I will say that,” Missick told The Hollywood Reporter. “There was this picture of me on Getty Images — please, no one find it — but I have the biggest, goofiest smile on my face. I was blown away at the audience. I mean, really?! I never imagined it.”
Marvel Television head Jeff Loeb raved about her performance in the same interview.
Simone just knocked it so far out of the park that we’re still trying to find the baseball. It’s somewhere out there traversing the globe. So it’s really great. And I can tell you that what she’s doing on Luke Cage, it’s just incredible. The fans are really going to love it. And wait until you see Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing. She’s amazing.
Colleen Wing will be appearing on Iron Fist, which airs sometimes next year. Wing is a martial artist trained in the way of the samurai and Knight’s best friend. The two together form “The Daughters of the Dragon”
So is Misty Knight preparing to follow in the footsteps of The Punisher, who launched his own series after a scene-stealing performance is Daredevil earlier this year. Not so fast, says Loeb.
We’re very lucky in a sense that our casts are so rich and deep and so diverse. We certainly have plans for all of our characters. A lot of it has to do with exactly how many shows Netflix is actually going to let us make. We’re up to six now. At a certain point, we have to be careful that we’re not becoming the Marvel channel on Netflix.
While there are plenty of fans who would have no problem with that, Netflix has previously announced that that would air no more than two Marvel shows per year. With Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Punisher and The Defenders already on the slate, scheduling a Misty Knight spin off could prove challenging just from a logistics point of view.
For her part, Missick has heard the buzz about a spin-off and couldn’t be more excited.
Somebody put it on Twitter that they want to see a Misty Knight series with Shonda Rhimes as one of the writers. I was like, ‘Hell yeah!’ How cool would that be? If you say it, if you put it out there, maybe it will happen. Tweet it, and it will come.
So, we’re putting it out there. C’mon Marvel. Give us a Misty Knight series. Or better yet The Daughters of the Dragon.
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