The Power Universe is entering its FOURTH iteration this Sunday: the highly anticipated Power Book IV: FORCE focusing on the next chapter for the fan-favorite character, Tommy Egan.
While Power die-hards are ecstatic to see how the unhinged henchman’s story unfolds now that his time in New York is a memory, Executive Producer and co-creator Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson is probably most excited of all.
“The Tommy Show is a natural spinoff. It is where the stakes are as high as Power,” he said. “With Tommy, it’s like saving the best for last. Power is based on a drug dealer making it to the top of the trade, feeling like he could have done something different. Because there’s no old folks home for drug dealers, just the federal penitentiary.”
50 says he loves that Tommy is unapologetic in his actions and his chosen lifestyle, something that the original Power‘s protagonist struggled with.
“[Ghost wondered] ‘Maybe I could have done this and not been caught up in this lifestyle.’ But Tommy’s the only person on the show that was straight up and decided, ‘I hustle. This is what I do good, and this is what I’m going to do.’ I gravitated to him. I liked his character from the beginning. I think it was season three was when I really became a Tommy fan on Power.”
Of course, with a new Power spinoff, comes another iconic theme song with 50 at the helm. Though he’s had some hiccups with Power‘s theme songs in the past – who could forget the level of sheer outrage fans expressed on Twitter when Trey Songz’ voice chimed in on the opening theme halfway through Power‘s final season? – 50 says he’s excited for fans to start singing along to FORCE‘s Chicago flavor.
“FORCE, is different because it had to feel like Chicago,” he said of the song. “I thought the best way to do that right now would be with Lil Durk and Jeremih.”
“I match everyone else’s tones on the record because I wanted the song to be a collaboration, not a collage of things that just fell on the record,” he said of stretching his voice into the Chicago style. So I had to re-vocalize it. It’s just a different image, I’ll say.”
Power Book IV: FORCE premieres Feburary 6 on Starz.