What is Power Book III: Raising Kanan about? Power's coldest villain gets a 1990s origin story
Kanan Stark spent Power's first three seasons as the man you did not want walking into a room — played by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, who also produced the show. The prequel asks a simple question: how did he get like that?
Answer: his mother taught him.
The premise
Raising Kanan premiered on Starz on July 18, 2021, created by Sascha Penn. It 's set in 1991 in South Jamaica, Queens, and follows a 15-year-old Kanan (Mekai Curtis) being pulled into the cocaine business run by his mother, Raquel "Raq" Thomas (Patina Miller). 50 Cent narrates as the adult Kanan, looking back. The theme is "Part of the Game," his track with NLE Choppa.
Who's in it
- Raq (Patina Miller) — runs the operation and the family, in that order.
- Marvin (London Brown) — her brother, volatile, doing his best as Jukebox's father.
- Lou-Lou (Malcolm Mays) — the other brother, a would-be music executive.
- Jukebox (Hailey Kilgore) — Kanan's cousin, who Power viewers already know he eventually kills.
- Unique (Joey Bada$$) — the rival distributor Raq spends years trying to remove.
- Detective Malcolm Howard (Omar Epps) — dirty cop, Raq's problem and occasionally her tool.
How it connects to Power
The prequel exists to fill in the gaps the flagship left. Showrunner Sascha Penn has said the run answers how Kanan came to kill Jukebox and settles every open question about the Thomas family. Starz billed the final stretch bluntly:
"Kanan's true ruthlessness takes shape." — Starz season 5 synopsis, 2026
How it ended
Five seasons, ending August 7, 2026. Season 5 ran eight episodes, jumped to 1993, and paired Kanan with Southside legend Breeze (Shameik Moore) against his own mother. The last episode puts him in front of two 13-year-old boys named Tommy and James — the future Tommy Egan and Ghost — and he tells them to come back when they're older. That's the handoff to the next spin-off, Power: Origins.
For the record: season 3 averaged over 9 million viewers an episode, which is why a show about a teenager in 1991 Queens got five years and a sequel.