‘Luke Cage’ Star Mike Colter Hopes to Return to the MCU [Exclusive]

After years of letting them sit in limbo, Marvel Studios is finally integrating the characters from Netflix’s Defenders Saga into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe. Daredevil: Born Again has brought back Charlie Cox (Daredevil) and Vincent D’Onofrio (Kingpin) in its two Disney+ seasons, and this season will also open the door for Krysten Ritter to reprise her role as Jessica Jones. Born Again is also already confirmed for a third season, so no matter where the story goes, these characters seem likely to stick around for the foreseeable future.

With two of the four Defenders having come back in the MCU — along with Jon Bernthal’s Punisher — fans are still curious to see whether Mike Colter (Luke Cage) or Finn Jones (Iron Fist) will take that same step. Both actors have spoken in multiple interviews about being open to a return, with Jones even passionately stating that he wants a chance to redeem himself after his show earned negative reviews. Colter’s gone back and forth on the matter, but his most recent comments may be the most encouraging fans have heard from him.

During a panel with MovieWeb‘s Joe Deckelmeier at MegaCon 2025 in Orlando, Florida, Colter addressed a potential return to the MCU as Luke Cage. Asked whether he’d seen Daredevil: Born Again, he replied, “I’ve seen some of it, yeah,” before tackling a question about what Luke might be doing during Wilson Fisk’s tenure as mayor of New York City. After musing on what Luke’s life might look like now, Colter made it clear that he’s open to a return:

“Running for mayor? I think, being that he has a place in Harlem, I feel like it’s revealed to me just now not to compare, because Eric Adams, who was just mayor, not mayor anymore, he wasn’t a very great mayor, quite honest. But you do have this idea of, you just had a Black guy as a mayor. I think Luke Cage is a different kind of… it’s gonna be a different kind of thing. But I would love to see that explored. There are so many chapters, so many chapters. As mayor, Jessica and he having a kid, there’s Iron Fist, he competes with Iron Fist. There’s another season that we haven’t finished around the show. There are so many endless ways to explore Cage and that story, so we’ll see. We got seven seasons of ‘Daredevil,’ can we get another season of ‘Luke Cage’?”

This might be Colter’s most passionate response yet to the idea of coming to the MCU as Luke Cage, a role he hasn’t played since an appearance in the final episode of Jessica Jones Season 3. After racking up more than 40 episodes of work across three different Netflix shows, Colter seems more than ready to jump back in and explore the greater MCU universe.

The last we saw of Luke, he’d taken control of the Harlem’s Paradise nightclub after Mariah Dillard left it to him in her will. Embracing a full wardrobe change, he even started to embody the crime lords he hated so much, teasing a potential dark turn in his new position of power.

Given the time gap between the end of that series and the current-day MCU, there’s a chance that Cage could be in a very different place now. Viewers could get more of a sense of where he is when Jessica Jones comes back in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, and depending on her status, it could pave a path for him to return. Regardless of how it plays out, viewers remain eager to see what Luke Cage can do in a New York City that might be in more danger than ever.