By: Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 01/15/22 – Forest Whitaker is back with a third season of MGM+’s popular crime drama Godfather of Harlem. His character Bumpy Johnson is fighting to maintain his spot as the king of Harlem. Staying on top requires Bumpy to produce a plan, which leads him to deal heroin. The goal seemed solid until he lost his stash. Now he must face off with the most powerful families in Harlem. The CIA is also watching his every move. Bumpy is not the type to back down from any challenge, which leaves his family and community caught in the middle of one of the most ruthless times in American history.
Season 3 will also include new cast members. Jason Alan Carvell has been cast to play Malcolm X, replacing Nigel Thatcher, who played the character in seasons 1 &2. The trailer also introduces Michael Raymond-James as Italian mob boss Joe Colombo. Whoopi Goldberg also returns to the series as Miss Willa. Returning cast members include; Vincent D’Onofrio, IIfenesh Hadera, Lucy Fry, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, and Giancarlo Esposito.
During the winter, TCA’s THT was allowed to interview the series co-creators, Chris Brancato and Godfather of Harlem’s Third Season Airs Tonight on MGM+. Here’s what they had to say:
THT: Bumpy Johnson faces many issues. Will we see a resolution this season?
Chris & Paul: The short answer is no; because the show would be over. We don’t do resolutions (Laughs). The first year was he exists prison and tries to reclaim his territory from Italians who have taken it over. The second year in his continued battle with them he tries to seize the French connection, which is the prime source of narcotics in New York. And in the third season he forms an alliance with the Spanish Harlem gangster named Jose Battle, this here is the Cuban connection. What we try to do each year is focus on a different segment of the criminal population to add to our show. We won’t see conflict resolution in this season, but what we are going to see is Bumpy starting to have pricks toward his conscious about the criminal behavior he is engaged in, he’s selling heroin in his own community and he uses the excuse “if I didn’t sell it someone else would, the Italians would and take the money out of the community.” But that excuse is going to fall thin with his wife and his friends. We are going to watch a guy who must grapple with the idea of poisoning his own community. It’s important to us that the show reflects the dark side of the gangster experience not be a public service add to be a drug dealer. We are also doing a political showing of the last year of Malcome X’s life. Underneath it all we are trying to do an examination of the soul of a man who used crime to get ahead. I think what we do well is make him have a goal, but there’s always a twist at the end. We try to put Bumpy in these situations where he thinks he’s getting resolutions, but all he’s doing is opening doors to the next chapter of accomplishments and challenges that he must face.
THT: In this season Alan Carvell replaces Nigel Thatch who played Malcolm X in seasons 1 & 2. Was the transition easy?
Chris & Paul: No. The negotiation that takes place when shows are getting picked up pushed our show later than we were supposed to start and Nigel had other commitments which then prevented him from joining us, which was obviously alarming. You never want to recast someone, especially someone who has done such a brilliant job filling the shoes of a historical role. So, we did a casting search far and wide, which had many challenges. We ultimately came down to two people and we called our partner Forest to get an opinion and he liked Jason. So, Jason was chosen, I think the audience will require one episode of adjustment to wrap their head around the transition. But he gives a wonderful performance, I think the audience will compare the two, I think they will both be favorably reviewed. We are hopeful the audience will accept it.
THT: Can we expect any new characters to be added to the show?
Chris & Paul: Yes, Jo Colombo. He’s a young hip mobster. He likes black people better than he like the mob families. Jo tries to bring his considerable charm to Bumpy and tries to form a partnership, but Bumpy is not ready to form a partnership with an Italian which causes friction. Additionally, it is a season of alliance’s, Bumpy realizes he can’t go against five families alone. So, he forms a partnership with a real-life character named Jose Battle who was the gang leader of Spanish Harlem. So, we are going to watch in this season a Latin and Black alliance to fight the Italians which sort of mirrors what was going on in the Civil Rights struggle in Harlem, where Puerto Ricans and Blacks were coming together to try to fight for rights. We are doing an interesting exploration of these groups that felt like they were second class citizens and ended up aligning with one another. But alliances are not easy even if you face a common enemy, so there will be friction. And back to your original question, there will not be a resolution to anything. And we think we have an ending for the season and it’s very powerful because it’s Malcolm’s last season and what happens to him affects Bumpy. Bumpy was actually involved with the final weeks of Malcolm’s life. Most people didn’t know how much of a connection Bumpy and Malcolm had. In truth Bumpy’s gangsters were protecting Malcolm up until just a few days before he died, and Malcolm called off the protection because it didn’t look so good having Harlem gangster’s protecting him and with that protection detailed pulled off, he ended up getting killed.
The third season of Godfather of Harlem will premiere on MGM+ tonight at 9 pm ET. Check out the trailer below:
Godfather of Harlem Season 3 Trailer
