Power Book IV: Force, the third spinoff in the critically acclaimed Power franchise, focuses on Tommy Egan, once again played by Joseph Sikora. Debuting on Starz on February 6, 2022, Force finds Tommy leaving New York and making Chicago his new home.
Executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson describes Chicago as a character in the much-anticipated spinoff. “It opens up a whole new environment. Culturally, things are a little different there. Gang culture…so many different elements out in the street that you can use as different devices at points in the storytelling,” explained Jackson during Starz’s Television Critics Association’s winter panel. “It gives you a completely clear slate of things that changes the show ultimately.”
Deciding to do a spinoff with Tommy as the main character was most likely an easy decision, given the character’s continuing popularity. Joseph Sikora said being allowed to play Tommy Egan for eight years has been a gift to him as an actor. Sikora’s been able to get into the “minutia of character development,” as he describes it.
During the TCA panel, Sikora explained where it is we pick up Tommy’s life at the beginning of the spinoff. “Where we find Tommy at the beginning of Power Book IV: Force is at the end of not only the Power show but also Power Book II: Ghost. So, we saw Tommy in that environment, too, but now we see him with absolutely nothing,” said Sikora. “So as an actor, what an incredible opportunity to have this very full fleshed-out character, very complex character now have absolutely nothing…a duffel bag full of money, a couple of guns, a couple of changes of clothes, and then just the shirt on his back and the gumption to survive. And I think that this survival technique speaks to us so intrinsically as human beings that that’s the transcendent that we can see and follow with Tommy throughout this show for however many years we go. Let’s say five.”
Sikora’s described Tommy as a bull in a china shop, but now that he’s in unfamiliar territory and surrounded by new players in Chicago he’s got a lot to sort through. “It’s always fun to play the bull when the bull isn’t sorry for knocking over the china. He’s very unapologetic in that way but it is that new environment. And so if Tommy was at a different part in the Power world and he just was gonna always leap first and think later, he might not make it through the city of Chicago. But because he’s in survival mode, Tommy’s a wolf that gets caught in a trap in Chicago, but he’s gonna chew off his arm to survive. That’s just who this character is,” said Sikora.
Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy) stars as Walter Flynn, one of the biggest players in Chicago and the head of an Irish crime family. Sikora thinks Walter sees a lot of himself in Tommy, this newcomer to Chicago who’s attempting to establish his own place in the pecking order.
“Walter’s been running the city for 30-plus years, and you don’t get there without knowing what the f**k you’re doing. And to be 30 years later and still be alive and being on top, you know, he can’t be no fool,” explained Flanagan.
Asked if Power fans can expect Tommy’s past to catch up with him, Jackson said it’s almost caught up to him in the past and a life in the fast lane in Chicago is dangerous. “For most people, when you get involved, they’ll tell you you’re going to be dead or in jail. Those are the outcomes that happen, and when you come into a whole new town and you’re kind of feeling your way around it, the things you go through make you who you are. That experience he’s coming from is creating his temperament as soon as he gets there,” said Jackson.
Isaac Keys plays Diamond Sampson, the head of the other big crime family in Chicago – the Chicago Brothers Inc. Keys teased that it’s going to be interesting to find out how Tommy survives in Chicago all on his own.
“One thing about the past is that you can’t control whether or not it comes back on you or not. So being out of control in situations can make you a little unstable. But Tommy’s coming into a whole new city, and he doesn’t have a support group that he’s had before. So now he’s this lone ranger out here trying to find his way. But there are other rangers in this city. There’s the Sampson Brothers, and you got the Flynn Family, and we don’t take too kindly to people just coming into the city and just trying to find their way and try to introduce themselves in a Tommy fashion,” explained Keys.
Keys continued: “It’s going to be exciting to see all of the journey but Tommy’s very calculated. Being calculated in that aspect, he’s trying to find a way. He’s good at doing that but I think he’s going to face a lot of obstacles and the past may be one but the present is going to be one too.”
Isaac Keys believes Tommy and his character, Diamond, have a lot in common. Keys also thinks Tommy and Diamond are both at a kind of crossroads.
“They’re both kind of transitioning back into kind of a new type of life,” explained Keys. “Diamond [is] coming out of prison. So Diamond, his way of thinking of things before has changed. Now his brother, Jenard Sampson – played by Kris Lofton – has been running things. So now he’s trying to get acclimated back to this city…how this city has changed, how the game has changed, the new players. But all of a sudden you’re hearing about this new player that has come in, and I pretty much thought I knew everything.
CBI is standing strong but now we got this new player in Tommy coming in. It’s like who is this guy? What is he about? And, so, it’s a curiosity. I think where Diamond kind of comes in play is that he’s intrigued. He’s not about to try to take his head off right away. He’s kind of intrigued. He’s curious about that, so he has to kind of play it a little slower.”
Another important player in this Power spinoff is Gloria Rodgers, played by Gabrielle Ryan. Gloria’s an ex-Marine and a Michelin star chef who winds up befriending Tommy. “Tommy enters the bar one day unexpectedly and I think it’s fair to say they’ve become quite fast friends,” said Ryan. “I think the thing about the Tommy character is wherever he goes, he’s very intriguing and that’s obviously something that Gloria sees immediately when he walks into the bar. She is very intrigued and does want to learn more, and she definitely does explore that.”
Joseph Sikora knows Chicago well but did sort of a refresher course in preparation for Power Book IV: Force. The TCA panel finished up with Sikora discussing getting reacquainted with the Windy City.
“I was a graffiti writer since I was 11 years old so there’s a thing in graffiti terminology that’s called ‘going all city,’ and so that’s what you have to do to have the respect in that subculture. So, yeah, I knew the city really well. I was also an amateur boxer and I fought ‘Park Districts,’ is what we call it in Chicago. Every neighborhood has its own Park District Boxing gym,” explained Sikora. “So, I went all over the city and I knew it really well. Also, my dad lived in Auburn Gresham for a while, so we would always go down there for the cookouts. So, I got to know the city really well as a young man.
I moved to New York when I was 21 years old. I’ve lived in New York longer than I lived in Chicago so what I did was I went to Chicago a month early to do ride-alongs with the police, to meet with friends and acquaintances and associates that did many, many years in prison, who ran gangs and gangsterism, and to figure out, to relearn the city of Chicago, because as I relearned it Tommy is learning it for the first time. I thought it was really important for me to know the inner workings of Chicago so I would understand how Tommy would have to put this process together.
There’s a great scene in the pilot that I really enjoyed of Tommy looking at a map of the city of Chicago. You know how we always look at it, and it’s a long thing that kind of almost mimics the state of Illinois. And Tommy, because it doesn’t make any sense to him, he takes it and he turns it [sideways]. Now, all right, now that’s my way, that’s how I learned to see this, and I think that’s a real reflection on Tommy Egan.
The only other person from New York City, in real life, that we ever saw go to Chicago and take care of business and live by his own rules was Al Capone. So if we can have a good Brooklyn boy do it, maybe a good Queens boy can do the same thing.”
