Meet Marvel’s Latest Villain
Mahershala Ali (pictured) is having a moment. Next month Ali will enjoy the fruits of branching out as he debuts three very different projects: The indie sneaker drama “Kicks” (Sept. 9), Barry Jenkins’s Toronto Film Festival entry “Moonlight,” and Marvel’s “Luke Cage” (Sept. 30), in which the versatile actor plays the Marvel Comics villain Cottonmouth opposite Mike Colter’s eponymous superhero. Ali’s take on Cottonmouth already promises to reflect a contemporized version of the Harlem supervillain first introduced in 1974 and frequently depicted
as a nefarious drug lord and pimp. “He’s definitely involved in some type of criminal activity,†Ali confirmed, “but he’s in the process of being guided toward turning the business more legitimate because of some of the input of his cousin Mariah, played by Alfre Woodard. He’s from a family in Harlem that’s built their humble empire off of, to some degree, legitim
