I don’t like Kanan Stark. After watching Mekai Curtis play him for five seasons on Power Book III: Raising Kanan, I mean that as a compliment.
I’ve watched every episode of Power and every series that followed it, and Curtis has managed to make me feel the same way about young Kanan that I felt about the older version played by 50 Cent. He’s selfish, dangerous, frustrating and increasingly cold. At times, Curtis plays him so well that I almost catch myself disliking the actor too. Game of Thrones fans who remember Joffrey Baratheon know exactly what I mean. When a performer makes you forget where the character ends and the actor begins, he’s doing something right.
That makes Curtis’ career path even more impressive. Before he was becoming a cutthroat killer in the Power Universe, he was a Disney kid.
Mekai Curtis Was a Disney Star Before ‘Raising Kanan’
Photo by Rich Polk/ Getty Images for Disney)
Born in 2000, Curtis has been building his acting résumé since he was a kid, with television credits stretching back to 2013. His early work included appearances on Arrested Development and Girl Meets World, along with a role in the 2014 film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
But Disney viewers probably remember him best as Fish Fisher on Kirby Buckets. Disney’s D23 archives Curtis as one of the stars of the Disney XD comedy, which debuted in 2014. He later voiced Zack Underwood on the animated series Milo Murphy’s Law.
Those roles required a completely different energy from Raising Kanan. Curtis went from family-friendly comedy and animation to carrying a gritty crime drama centered on drugs, violence, family betrayal and survival.
That’s not a small pivot.
Plenty of young actors spend years trying to convince audiences to stop seeing the child star they used to be. Curtis made that transition look natural.
‘Raising Kanan’ Changed Mekai Curtis’ Career
Raising Kanan also came with another challenge: viewers already knew Kanan Stark.
Photo by Arturo Holmes / WireImage / Getty Images
50 Cent established the adult Kanan in the original Power as one of the show’s most ruthless and memorable characters. Curtis wasn’t creating someone completely from scratch. He had to show us how that man could have once been a teenager and then slowly close the distance between the two versions.
That’s where I think his performance has been strongest.
You can see pieces of the Kanan we already know showing up more and more—the anger, ego, survival instincts and willingness to hurt people when he thinks it’s necessary. Curtis doesn’t simply imitate 50 Cent. He gives the younger character enough humanity for us to understand the transformation, even when we don’t like the person he’s becoming.
Curtis ultimately carried that transformation through five seasons. STARZ lists Power Book III: Raising Kanan as a five-season series, another substantial chapter in a Power franchise that has become one of the network’s defining properties.
From ‘Power’ to What’s Next
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The Power Universe has stretched far beyond the original series that introduced Ghost, Tommy and Kanan. Multiple spinoffs have helped keep the franchise alive for more than a decade, and Curtis was entrusted with leading one of its biggest chapters.
His time as Kanan isn’t over either.
Curtis is set to reprise the character in Power: Origins, which will turn the clock back again to explore younger versions of Ghost and Tommy while continuing Kanan’s story. That means the role that transformed Curtis from former Disney star to dramatic lead still has more ground to cover.
But I’m almost more interested in what happens after that.
Curtis is only 25. He’s already gone from Disney comedy to voice acting to leading a violent crime drama for five seasons. Eventually, he’s going to have to step away from Kanan Stark and convince audiences to see him as somebody completely different again.
Based on how thoroughly he made me dislike Kanan, I want to see who Mekai Curtis can make me believe he is next.
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