Interview: Raising Kanan Kills Off Marvin and London Brown Has a Lot to Say
- Je-Ree
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
Power Book III: Raising Kanan has never been shy about taking a beloved character off the board, but the death of Marvin Thomas hits differently. Season 5 has been steadily stripping the Thomas family down piece by piece, and the latest episode delivered one of the show’s most painful losses yet when Kanan killed his own uncle.
Yes, Kanan really pulled the trigger on Marvin. As if that were not enough emotional damage for one episode, Jukebox also took matters into her own hands by killing Snaps and Pop, avenging Famous and moving one step closer to the hardened woman viewers first met in Power. Apparently, the writers decided nobody watching needed peace this week.
Marvin’s death is especially devastating because his journey has been one of the strongest and most surprising character arcs in the entire series. He entered Raising Kanan as volatile, reckless and deeply flawed, particularly in his relationship with Jukebox. Over time, however, Marvin became one of the show’s emotional anchors. He worked on himself, fought to rebuild his relationship with his daughter and repeatedly put his family ahead of his own survival.
Before the final season premiered, London Brown spoke with The TV Cave about Marvin’s priorities and where his loyalty rested as the story approached its conclusion. Looking back now, his words feel like a warning hiding in plain sight.
“I think his loyalty is with his family,” Brown told The TV Cave. “I want to say his daughter, because that’s the last thing he kind of can have some sort of say over. So I probably would put it with the daughter first.”
Brown also made it clear that Marvin understood Kanan was already slipping beyond his reach. “His nephew is gone. His nephew’s not listening anymore,” Brown said. “So because of that, Marvin’s like, ‘All right, let me try to at least cover my daughter while I can.’”
That statement lands much harder after watching Kanan murder him. Marvin knew his nephew was no longer the young man he could reason with, protect or guide. Kanan had already chosen Breeze, power and survival over the family that raised him. By the time Marvin stood in front of him, there was barely anything left to appeal to.
The tragedy is that Marvin spent the final stretch of his life trying to protect Jukebox while she was undergoing her own transformation. Juke’s decision to kill Snaps and Pop is not treated like a random burst of violence. It is deliberate, personal and rooted in grief over Famous. She does not ask for permission, and she does not wait for someone else to handle it. She makes the decision and finishes the job herself.
That moment gives viewers one of the clearest glimpses yet of the Jukebox seen in the original Power. Hailey Kilgore plays the scene with a cold restraint that makes it even more unsettling. Juke is not celebrating what she has done. She is simply accepting that this is who she needs to be in order to survive.
The timing makes the episode even more brutal. Marvin is desperately trying to hold on to his daughter while Jukebox is proving that she is no longer someone waiting to be saved. Brown previously explained that Marvin’s relationship with Juke was one of the main reasons audiences connected with the character.
“Dealing with his daughter shows the vulnerability that the audience can also connect to,” Brown said. “That’s outside of guns. It’s just him being the dad and trying to figure it out.”
That vulnerability separated Marvin from many of the other figures in the Power universe. He could be funny, dangerous, loving and frustrating, sometimes within the same scene. His mistakes were serious, but so was his effort to change. Viewers did not simply forget what Marvin had done. They watched him grow into someone who understood the damage he caused and wanted to repair it.
Brown also pushed back on the idea that Marvin was simply irresponsible. “Yeah, he’ll slip up, but his intentions are good,” Brown said. “He’s not trying to mess up things.”
By Season 5, that reading of Marvin feels undeniable. He is still capable of violence, and he remains deeply tied to the streets, but his loyalty never becomes unclear. He wants to avenge Lou-Lou. He wants to protect Jukebox. He wants to hold together a family that is already collapsing around him.
Brown described Marvin as someone who was “drowning emotionally,” and that may be the most accurate summary of the character’s final chapter. Lou-Lou was gone. Raq was focused on her own war. Kanan had stopped listening. Jukebox was slipping into a darker version of herself. Marvin could see every loss coming, yet he kept trying to cover the people he loved anyway.
That is why his death works as more than a shocking plot twist. Kanan does not only kill a relative. He eliminates one of the last people still acting from a place of genuine family loyalty. The moment confirms how far Kanan has fallen and how little remains of the boy introduced at the beginning of the series.
Meanwhile, Jukebox’s double killing creates a grim parallel. Kanan and Juke both cross major lines in the same episode, but they do it for very different reasons. Juke kills out of grief and loyalty to Famous. Kanan kills while proving his loyalty now belongs somewhere else.
Marvin’s story ends just as he becomes the man many viewers always hoped he could be. He never became perfect, and the show never pretended otherwise. What he became was accountable, protective and painfully human.
London Brown told The TV Cave that Marvin was trying to cover his daughter while he still could. Now that Marvin is gone and Jukebox is standing on the other side of her own deadly turning point, those words feel less like an interview answer and more like the final statement on his character.
Raising Kanan has one chapter left, but Marvin’s death has already changed the ending. Kanan has severed another tie to his family, Jukebox has embraced a colder path and the Thomas family may never recover. Fans will have plenty to debate, but one thing feels certain: Marvin Thomas deserved better, and London Brown made every messy, funny and heartbreaking part of the journey count.
Check out our full interview below: