Netflix’s Supacell is here to change the game, and its cast and creator, Rapman, are here to show the world what Black British talent can do.
The series follows ordinary Black people from South London who unexpectedly develop superpowers, and one of them, Michael Lasaki (Tosin Cole), “must bring them all together to save the woman he loves.”
Aside from Cole, the series also stars Eric Kofi Abrefa, Nadine Mills, Calvin Demba, Josh Tedeku, Adelayo Adedayo, Rayxia Ojo, Giacomo Mancini and Eddie Marsan.
Rapman is the creator, lead director and showrunner. The U.K. rapper-turned-filmmaker had a cult hit across the pond with the viral Shiro’s Story series with Joivan Wade, Percelle Ascott and Ashley Walters. He then had a critically acclaimed BAFTA and NME Award-winning hit in Blue Story, primed to be a hit in the United States if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t botched its release plans. But with Supacell, he said it has the best of what you’ve seen in his work and then some.
“If you look at my other stuff, there’s bits of my other stuff in there,” Rapman told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “You can get a bit of the love story like you’ve got in Shiro’s Story, or a bit of the drama and the rivalry like you’ve got in Blue Story, but then we’ve taken it to another level with this where we’ve added the sci-fi touch. We’ve increased the production value. So I think it’s a good representation of me, and I think it’s a great representation of London because, honestly, takeout the superpowers, that is literally London. If you want to tell somebody what’s London like, especially as a Black person in London, watch that show because that’s literally the Black experience in the U.K. now.”
One of the most interesting aspects of the season is how Cole’s Michael tries to bring this would-be superhero team together, slowly but surely — to mixed results.
“It’s tough, man,” Cole explained. “It’s tough because the easiest thing to do when you are frustrated and things is not going your way is to lash out and be angry about certain things or be forceful about certain things, but that’s not the Michael way of doing things. You know what I mean? So sometimes Raps [Rapman] is like, ‘That’s not who he is. That’s not who he is.’ I’m like, ‘Bro, come on, man; I’ve got to do something.’ He’s like, ‘No, this is not who he is.’ So just having to strip back everything and just be very zen about everything and being just very patient about everything. It’s easy to lash out and get angry, but it’s like when he figures one thing, something else is going wrong somewhere. So it’s like him just trying to keep everything at a balance and trying to still maintain who he is, even though he’s still changing slowly and slowly and slowly.”
Watch the full interview above.
Supacell is now streaming on Netflix.
