‘Power’ Creator Courtney Kemp Explains Why Killing Dre Isn’t What Fans Really Want

STARZ hit series Power returns Sunday, July 1 with much anticipation to pick back up where things left off in season 4 for Omari Hardwick, Lela Loren, Naturi Naughton, Joseph Sikora,  50 Cent, Rotimi, and La La Anthony’s characters.

The ending of season 4 served a devastating lost for the St. Patrick family after losing their daughter Raina (Donshea Hopkins) at the hands of a crooked cop. Tensions are running high and revenge is at the top of many of the characters list gunning after one guy in particular, Dre; played by Rotimi Akinosho. Many fans have been counting down the days until Dre ends up in a body bag, or worst, but series creator Courtney Kemp is not out to give fans what they think they want.

Glambergirlblog.com sat down with Kemp and she told the outlet she doesn’t try to please viewers desires when watching the show. “The first season we did this show we didn’t have any fan interaction because they were no fans, so we wrote the show based on the vision of what the show was. I have never deviated from that. I refuse to let fans have input on what we do with the show. We will only kill the show that way because the show isn’t about what you want to happen, the show is about what’s surprising and inevitable,” she said.

Glambergirlblog.com owner Amber Dover and ‘POWER’ creator Courtney Kemp/ Photo: Glambergirlblog

“For example if I did an episode where Ghost and Angela got married and live happily ever after why are you watching the show after that? You can’t just give the audience what they want,” Kemp added.

Not giving people what they want also applies to the cast of Power . Kemp revealed the actors don’t always know what’s in store for their character arc and only provides them with intel if they are getting written off the show. “There was one exception to my rule which is I had to tell Joseph Sikora a year before Tommy killed Holly. I had to tell him that he would do that because we were shooting the scene in episode 206 where he’s handcuffed to the bed and he goes to choke her and he asked me ‘would I actually do it’ and I said ‘yes you would kill her and you will.’ But he had to know because it had to match and he had to feel like I would actually do this.”

Holly’s death was a major game changer for the series putting Raina’s death on that same pedestal. Kemp said,”We really designed Raina’s death, 409, and then 410 to just be one day that’s about revenge, so everyone is focused on another goal. Once Ray Ray’s in the ground though and that’s why, you guys have seen in the promo that we do a funeral, the closure and the grief begins in season 5. You see Tasha grieve her daughter properly and then you see Ghost grieve it improperly.”

Photo: STARZ

Moving forward in season 5, Dre emerges as a seemingly untouchable villain who stands out against previous “bad guys” on the show. Kemp explained, “Part of the reason we brought Dre onto the show was that he was representing how bananas these young kids are. Like young kids in the hood they don’t give a, they’re just like killing people like it’s nothing.”

“In terms of making Dre this villain, I think I said this publicly before, Ghost is Ghost. Ghost 2.0 is Dre, Ghost 3.0 is Tariq. So in Ghost 2.0 this is someone who has learned from Kanan like Ghost did, but also learned from Ghost. Ghost made himself, he’s his own self creation right? Dre has learned enough from Ghost to try to put some pieces together about how you have to plan and plot, but he’s not good at lying to multiple people at once and not looking like he’s lying. He’s hustling a little bit. You can feel the sweat. You can feel the effort. While he’s a mega villain because he does bad stuff, he’s also not excellent at it all the time and I think that’s really kind of what you see with Dre and I think that’s why fans get frustrated because they’re like ‘kill him,’ but the thing is Dre is smart enough to not get killed.”

Photo: STARZ

While “Respect. Legacy. Revenge” may be the plot line for Power this season, Courtney’s message for the show goes beyond that. “My goal would be that we can be anything and everything and that there’s enough room in a show for a Shawn and a Tariq. Shawn who is a really good person who’s around the wrong people and Tariq who has all the right things and chooses to do wrong. The world of Power is very harsh. Everyone is worst than they are in real life on my show as opposed to being better. They’re just rich and have nice clothes which I think people confuse for positive representation. That is not positive representation.”

Season 5 of Power premieres Sunday, July 1 at 8/7c. Watch the trailer for season 5 in the clip below and share your thoughts in the comments.

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Photo: Starz