Power’s Latest Tale Premieres on Crave

The Power franchise expands, as drug enforcer Tommy Egan winds up caught between two feuding gangs

A pitstop in Chicago becomes a surprising career move for New York drug dealer Tommy Egan, in yet another spinoff of Starz’s epic crime saga.

In Power Book IV: Force, which premiered last Sunday, Joseph Sikora returns as Tommy, who leaves NYC after losing best friend Ghost (Omari Hardwick) and girlfriend LaKeisha (La La Anthony), heading west for Los Angeles, where a job apparently awaits. But a detour to the Windy City to close an old wound turns into something more, as Egan crosses paths with the Flynn crime family, headed by Walter (Tommy Flanagan, Sons of Anarchy), his not-too-bright son Vic (Shane Harper, Hightown) and his ferociously intelligent daughter Claudia (Banshee‘s Lili Simmons).

Through a series of unexpected, unfortunate events, Tommy winds up in the middle of a feud between the city’s two biggest drug crews. But he relies on his New York street smarts and uses his outsider status to his advantage, breaking and rewriting local rules in a quest to become top dog in Chicago.

The show brings back a character who became a Power fan favourite during the original’s six-season run and places him in a new setting with a new storyline and new foes. Sikora, who calls Tommy an “id” with “base qualities,” relished the chance to explore fresh territory with him.

“I think that when he left New York City he left really leaving the city in his rearview mirror and not knowing what was to come in the future,” Sikora explains. “But what he did know was that he couldn’t go back… And in a lot of ways, Chicago looks like and feels like it should be New York. And I think Tommy tries to go there saying, ‘Hey, this is how you do this. This is how you do that.’ ”

“But the difference is that this backdrop is different,” the actor continues. “It has a different history, kind of the racial relations look like they should be the same but they’re not the same. How the city is set up is different and the politics in general are different than New York. So there is a learning curve and Tommy isn’t necessarily always going to win, but what we do know about Tommy is that he’s never going to give up.”

This latest spinoff comes on the heels of Book II: Ghost, which follows Ghost’s son Tariq (Michael Rainey, Jr.) as he builds his own drug empire in the wake of dad’s death, and Book III: Raising Kanan, a ’90s-set origin story for Ghost’s mentor-turned-nemesis Kanan Stark (Mekai Curtis, taking over for Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson). Coming up after Force will be Book V: Influence, which gives the franchise’s resident sleazy politician Rashad Tate (Larenz Tate) a showcase all his own.

Power Book IV: Force airs Sundays at 1:20 a.m. on Starz 2; Crave (Stream)