Luke Cage Alfre Woodard is Mariah Dillard

[BarryAllen]

“Marvel’s Luke Cage” steps into the world of Harlem politics with the spectacular addition of Alfre Woodard (“12 Years a Slave,” “Annabelle”). The series premieres in 2016 everywhere that Netflix is available. Throughout her storied career, Woodard has earned four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and been nominated for an Academy Award.

Woodard will play Mariah Dillard, a local Harlem politician--and cousin to recently announced Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali)--who is looking to bring a new era of change to the streets she grew up on. Her personal life and professional career are thrown into turmoil by both Harlem's newest hero Luke Cage as well as her cousin Cottonmouth's nefarious acts.

“Alfre has an incredible, unique, and intimidating presence on screen that makes her perfect as a leader of the Harlem community,” said Executive Producer/Head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb. “We couldn’t be more excited that an actress as celebrated and talented as Alfre has decided to join us on this adventure.”

Obviously, it looks like they are heavily revamping the character of Black Mariah, but it should be fun to have female big bad in the Netflix shows.

 

[BarryAllen]

https://youtu.be/tADkb8E22BQ?t=48s

Alfre Woodard speaks on Mariah Dillard (formerly Stokes before she married into the Dillards)'s backstory and what sets her apart from her cousin Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes. Cornell uses the family's old ways of building the fortune on force in order to maintain the family legacy while Mariah's higher education informs her going for political power.

 

[TheVileOne]

Woodard's great in this show. She brings a lot of humanity to Mariah.

 

[Chance Jackson]

She's a great actress but it is weird how she also plays the women who set Tony on a path to the registration side

 

[Slick]

I've no idea what your talking about. I see only Mariah Dillard.

 

[TeeKay]

She's a great actress but it is weird how she also plays the women who set Tony on a path to the registration side

Doesn't ring a bell.

 

[metaphysician]

She had a cameo roll in Civil War. Which is about as meaningful and important as the cameo roll Gyokaj had in Avengers 1.

 

[Iron Fist]

She's a great actress but it is weird how she also plays the women who set Tony on a path to the registration side

Are you sure? 'Cause, y'know, they look completely different.

 

[Chance Jackson]

She had a cameo roll in Civil War. Which is about as meaningful and important as the cameo roll Gyokaj had in Avengers 1.

my mistake lol

 

[Hypestyle]

It’s a good thing that the character was radically updated. It would have been too garish and bizarre to try and just copy & paste.

 

[BarryAllen]

Mahershala Ali and Alfre Woodared talk about using the Mariah Dillard's comic book moniker "Black Mariah" on the show:

IGN: Ali, the first time we hear “Black Mariah” said as a name, you say it, and it’s almost like something from the past you can pull out and say in a way to get her. Did you guys think about what that history would have been, growing up together as cousins?

Ali: It’s not something we necessarily talked about, but that moment we talked about. And that gets into some stuff that is really personal to black culture. I mean, you get into skin tone, when you get to insulting. And we kind of had to make that moment our own, and what that meant to us, and why that was an insult, why she would get upset about that. But again, that gets us back into - with family, that’s what it is. Otherwise, if we weren’t related, she would be a politician that I, for some reason, had a relationship with, when I ran this club, and we both have an agenda, and we’re trying to achieve that end. But because we’re family, and you can’t divorce family, it complicates that relationship. And she has to deal with me, as I have to tolerate her, in a certain way. And I think I’m probably more of a problem for her than she is for me, in all honesty, because she is trying to legitimize the family, kind of for her sake, as well, because you can’t have this shady cousin running around there. Like, she may have, and I don’t know, we haven’t talked about this, but the city council could really be a stepping-stone to mayor or something for her. So this needs to get worked out.

Woodard: But also, this was something that we did have to work out because of the character in the original Luke Cage [comics] in ’72. There was a Black Mariah, who was very different from what we’re doing. Some of our characters, like Misty, like Luke, some of our characters and others come straight out of the comic. Others are inspired by them. But Cheo [Coker] wanted to give recognition and homage to Black Mariah, but I started saying, “Well, it depends on who calls me Black Mariah.” And he says, “I want you to go after him!” And that’s when we see, “Oh Lord, she’s not a mild mannered city councilwoman.” And it helped that they’re cousins, and it helped that I wasn’t dark skinned, so you knew it was about something else, so what else? So we talked about those things that would set it off, and it was, it is old schoolyard poop between cousins.

 

[The Caped Knight]

Seriously she the one responsible for getting under Stark's skin in Civil War. Regardless of the name change, this woman is pure evil!!!!

 

[Silvermoth]

Alfre was absolutely flawless in this series. My favourite character definitely. I hope she gets an Emmy.

People are saying the guy who played Cottonmouth should appear in a Star Wars movie but I think Alfre would be a much better choice

 

[psylockolussus]

She was fierce and shady! I liked her role in Civil War so it was nice to see her again.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Spoiler

Characters unable to make up their mind annoy me. David Banner annoyed me in the 2003 Hulk movie in not making up his mind, but he's a bit more consistent than Mariah Dillard.

B****, make up your mind, you want to side with the law or do shady work?

"I don't want this"

"Kill Luke Cage"

"Our people did not fight for us to be gangstas"

"Political corruptness it what I strive for"

"I don't want to be part of your criminal organization"

And then finally, metal snake tells the old bruja "You want this", and then she sticks her mind and not say again "I like legit"

Her cousin is probably right about her wanting to get f***ed by their uncle/mom's friend.