Mike Colter stars as Luke Cage, a former convict with superhuman strength and unbreakable skin who now fights crime and corruption.

When a sabotaged experiment gives him super strength and unbreakable skin, Luke Cage becomes a fugitive attempting to rebuild his life in Harlem and must soon confront his past and fight a battle for the heart of his city.

By October 2013, Marvel Television was preparing four drama series and a miniseries, totaling 60 episodes, to present to video on demand services and cable providers, with Netflix, Amazon, and WGN America expressing interest.

"[9] Charles Murray, Alison Engel, Allie Goss, Kris Henigman, Cindy Holland, Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Joe Quesada, Dan Buckley, and Jim Chory also serve as executive producers.

[46] Charles Murray, Akela Cooper, Nathan Louis Jackson, Matt Owens, Aïda Mashaka Croal, Jason Horwitch, and Christian Taylor served as writers on the first season, with Matthew Lopes, Nicole Mirante-Matthews, and Ian Stokes joining for the second.

[35] Actor Mike Colter described the series as having "soul" and "intensity", compared to the "dark action" of Daredevil and the "noir feel" of Jessica Jones.

[48] Coker described "a powerful fusion of dark drama, hip-hop, and classic superhero action" while being "The Wire of Marvel television, because we really deal with a lot of different issues.

"[49] Jason Tanz of Wired likened the series to neo-blaxploitation,[41] which Coker agreed with in that "blaxploitation is [just] black characters being able to assert themselves in a visual world", stating that he felt the series was more specifically a "hip-hop Western", comparing its characters and setting to Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of films (with Cage the Man with No Name, for example).

[1][15] Also announced as cast in September were Theo Rossi as Hernan "Shades" Alvarez,[19][23] Simone Missick as Mercedes "Misty" Knight,[18][19] and Mahershala Ali as Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes.

[59] Maslansky took inspiration from the comics illustrations, as she did on the other Marvel Netflix series, but also looked to the "rich and colorful history" of Harlem, and Coker's own vision.

[69] In April 2016, Coker revealed that Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad were composing the series' score,[49] describing it as "a confluence of multiple genres, a bit of ['90s] hip-hop, soul, psychedelic rock and classical",[70][49] with "a lot of different musical appearances".

[75] Luke Cage is the third of the ordered Netflix series after Daredevil and Jessica Jones and was followed by Iron Fist, which lead to the miniseries The Defenders.

[44][76][77] In November 2013, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that if the characters prove popular on Netflix, "It's quite possible that they could become feature films,"[78] which was echoed by Sarandos in July 2015.

[79] In August 2014, Vincent D'Onofrio, Wilson Fisk in Daredevil, stated that after the "series stuff with Netflix", Marvel has "a bigger plan to branch out".

As it is now, in the same way that our films started out as self-contained and then by the time we got to The Avengers, it became more practical for Captain America to do a little crossover into Thor 2 and for Bruce Banner to appear at the end of Iron Man 3.

[82] Luke Cage was released on the streaming service Netflix, in all territories where it is available,[42] in Ultra HD 4K and High-dynamic-range video (HDR).

[87] Coker hoped Disney did not "sit on [the series] for years to allow for an easier reboot, or re-air it with a different mix, or the N-Word muted".

Todd Yellin, Netflix's vice president of product innovation, noted that audiences watch the series "in order of how they're interested in them and how they learn about them."

The data also revealed that fans of Stranger Things and other series that explore "the dark side of society" such as Black Mirror, The Walking Dead and the documentary Amanda Knox led viewers to starting Luke Cage.

[96] In October 2018, Crimson Hexagon, a consumer insights company, released data that examined the "social-media buzz" for the series to try to correlate it with potential viewership.

The website's critical consensus reads, "An immersive, socially conscious narrative and a confident, charismatic lead performance make Marvel's Luke Cage a stellar sampling of the new Marvel/Netflix universe.

The website's critical consensus states, "In its second season, Marvel's Luke Cage delivers a satisfyingly complex narrative and a solid ensemble cast led by Alfre Woodard's standout performance as the archvillainess Black Mariah.

[118] In September 2018, the writers room was put on hold so Netflix and Marvel could work out how to adjust the season from the expected 13 episodes to a shorter 10-episode run.

Some of the executives had issues with these scripts, despite them featuring many of the notes they asked to be included, and the creative differences devolved into "behind-the-scenes turmoil" by the end of the week.

[123] In December 2020, Colter said there had not been any discussions with Marvel Studios regarding him reprising the role and added, "I know fans are eager to see something with the character.

"[124] In February 2022, Coker said he hoped that Colter and Missick would be asked to reprise their roles if Marvel Studios chose to feature the characters again, and was open to creating commentary tracks or a retrospective podcast for the series.