He is joined by principal cast members Mahershala Ali, Simone Missick, Theo Rossi, Erik LaRay Harvey, Rosario Dawson, and Alfre Woodard.

Coker especially emphasized the use of music: Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad composed a "'90s hip-hop" score; various artists give onscreen performances in the fictional nightclub Harlem's Paradise throughout the season; and each episode is named after a Gang Starr song.

[1] Luke Cage, a former convict with superhuman strength and unbreakable skin, keeps a low profile as a sweeper at ex-gangster Henry "Pop" Hunter's barbershop, and as a dishwasher at crime boss Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes' nightclub, Harlem's Paradise.

Cage finds out from a regular customer, Bobby Fish, that the barbershop is facing closure due to unpaid bills, and decides to take Stokes' money to cover the debt and re-open the shop.

Coker chose the Gang Starr songs ahead of his first pitch meeting with Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb, to help organize his planned story arcs.

[46] More specifically, Coker felt the season was a hip-hop Western, comparing it to Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of films, with Cage the Man with No Name coming to a town, Harlem, where he is convinced to fight injustice.

Coker further compared the characters Cottonmouth and Misty Knight to the resident villain and local law enforcement, respectively, of the Western genre, and described the Harlem's Paradise nightclub as the town's saloon.

[49] Coker also planned the "rugpull" at the end of the seventh episode from his initial pitch, wanting the audience to feel the same way he had reading Alpha Flight #12 which featured the death of Guardian.

[27] Also recurring throughout the season are Ron Cephas Jones as Bobby Fish,[20] Jacob Vargas as Domingo Colon,[21] Darius Kaleb as Lonnie Wilson,[22] Jade Wu as Connie Lin,[23] Deborah Ayorinde as Candace Miller,[24] Justin Swain as Mark Bailey,[25][26] Jaiden Kaine as Zip,[27] Dawn-Lyen Gardner as Megan McLaren,[29] Jeremiah Richard Craft as D. W. Griffith,[30] Michael Kostroff as Noah Burstein,[31] Tijuana Ricks as Thembi Wallace,[32] and John Clarence Stewart as Alex Wesley.

[60] For the character Shades, brands such as Hugo Boss, Helmut Lang, Prada, and Ferragamo were used "because he wasn't trying to hide who he was",[59] while Misty Knight, in her final shot of the season, is shown wearing a version of her own iconic comic costume.

[28] Filming took place in Harlem, including Lenox Avenue and areas where American Gangster was shot,[63][64] the Mount Olivet Baptist Church, St. Nicholas Park, Jackie Robinson Park, Riverside Park, and the Riverside Drive Viaduct;[70] in Washington Heights,[70] including at the United Palace;[71] Cortlandt Alley in Chinatown;[70] in areas of Queens for when Cage escapes Seagate Prison and puts on the classic Power Man costume;[57] the Roosevelt Island steam plant and Queens Detention Facility for interiors of Seagate;[70][72] the Music Hall of Williamsburg for the exterior of Harlem's Paradise; the former Fulton Correctional Facility in The Bronx for the Crispus Attucks Complex; and the Long Island City portion of Newtown Creek.

[3] The series was shot on Netflix's standard 4K cameras, with Billeter pairing them with Panavision Primo lenses that were "custom treated with a reflective coating in between the glass elements in the interior of the lens, causing more flares and bringing down the contrast in addition to very slightly de-focusing them" in order to "add something magic, less controlled and more cinematic".

Billeter filmed Colter with a lot of low angles to make him look "even more heroic", and kept the camera close to him with Harlem in the background so that Cage "is always the dominant force in his shots, but he also remains a part of the terrain.

It involved creating a CG building and integrating it into footage of a real New York City block, matching up with different camera angles and sources of light throughout the sequence.

[79] In April 2016, Coker revealed that Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad were composing the series' score,[46] describing it as "a confluence of multiple genres, a bit of ['90s] hip-hop, soul, psychedelic rock and classical".

[86] Songs from Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone,[53] John Lee Hooker ("It Serves You Right to Suffer" and "I'm Bad Like Jesse James"),[53][87][88] Dusty Springfield ("Son of a Preacher Man"),[89] and Wu-Tang Clan ("Bring da Ruckus") are used in the season.

[31][96] Specific mentions of the latter include Madame Gao's operations in Daredevil,[8] the widely known villains Wilson Fisk and Frank Castle,[31] and a flier for Colleen Wing's martial arts class, to then be introduced in Iron Fist.

[115] As Netflix does not reveal subscriber viewership numbers for any of their original series, Symphony Technology Group compiled data for the season based on people using software on their phones that measures television viewing by detecting a program's sound.

According to Symphony, Luke Cage opened stronger initially than the Netflix original series Making a Murderer and Stranger Things, but its performance over its first month fell short of both, comparatively.

Jumpshot, which "analyzes click-stream data from an online panel of more than 100 million consumers", looked at the viewing behavior and activity of the company's U.S. members, factoring in the relative number of U.S. Netflix viewers who watched at least one episode of the season.

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.

He found Simone Missick to be the standout performer, praised the soundtrack which has "the most active role in a superhero production since Guardians of the Galaxy", and was equally impressed with the original score by Younge and Muhammad.

[122] Deadline Hollywood's Dominic Patten called Luke Cage "one of the most socially relevant and smartest shows on the small screen you will see this year... the series reaches both back and forward into the culture of heroes and an America looking for a true game-changer.

"[123] David Milner for Digital Spy was also positive about the season's exploration of African-American history, but felt Ali's Cottonmouth did not reach the heights of previous Marvel Netflix villains.

[124] Maureen Ryan of Variety felt the season "has a more than adequate supply of pleasures", with a strong cast that could overcome some of its issues including a "somewhat clunky pilot and a notable tendency to sprawl".

[20] Merrill Barr, writing for Forbes, called the season "another winner for Marvel and Netflix that shouldn't be missed," praising its story, twists, and "the 70s stylings that shake things up real well.

Despite "weak exposition delivery in the pilot, repetitive narrative structures, and individual arcs that are cut short too soon," Eisenberg concluded that Luke Cage presented an area of the MCU unlike any previous films or television series and had done so with "a compelling vision and atmosphere".

"[132] Keene highlighted the use of race in the season, and how it did not just study crime but also "the beleaguered police, sleazy politicians, and the young people in the community who see guns and drugs as an easy way to make money.

"[34] Zalban felt that, just like Jessica Jones "sucked fans in by being a superhero detective story set in the Marvel Universe, while actually being one of the most powerful and thorough explorations of sexual assault ever committed to film," so too would Luke Cage with the racial aspects it covered.

Ali felt that Cage's focus on teaching others about the culture of Harlem rather than always using his abilities made him one of the more interesting and relevant modern superheroes, but also noted that he could be old-fashioned in his earnestness at times, such as in his sensitivity towards the use of the word "nigger".