'Power Book IV: FORCE' brings production to Chicago, reuniting actor Joseph Sikora with his hometown by Suzanne Hanney
Actor Joseph Sikora as Tommy Egan in "Power Book IV: Force." INSET: Promotional poster for "Power Book IV: Force" (Starz photos).
It’s just Tommy Egan and Chicago now in the Starz TV spinoff, “Power Book IV: Force,” which debuts Sunday, February 6. In the original “Power” series that drew up to 10 million viewers in 178 countries per episode, Tommy was the crazy, ruthless, fearless operations manager (code for “enforcer”) of the Manhattan-based, international drug empire led by James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick), his best friend. Tommy left New York City in the rearview mirror of his royal blue Mustang after the sixth season finale in 2020, when “Ghost” was shot dead by his own son, Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr.) and his wife, Tasha (Naturi Naughton), took the heat. Ghost had dreamed of going legit and building a Fortune 500 empire with proceeds of the nightclub they used to launder money, but along the way, Ghost also reconnected with his long-lost high school sweetheart, Angela Valdez (Lela Loren) -- a federal prosecutor. Angela is now dead and so are Tommy’s girlfriend, LaKeisha (LaLa Anthony), and his father, mob boss Tony Teresi (William Sadler). The feds think Tommy’s dead, too.
“Tommy was always in pursuit to find where he belonged,” Sikora told Entertainment Weekly (EW). Growing up in Queens, NYC, Tommy was often the only white person in his neighborhood; he became friends with Ghost after the latter defended him. He knows he is a product of the streets, a hustler who owes his life to the game. “Tommy was the most honest character on ‘Power,’ so I think this comes back to the roots of Tommy,” Sikora said. “Now that he’s an empty shell, what are the qualities of Tommy that keep him going? It’s almost like watching a flashback in the future, in some ways. Because what we’re doing is seeing how Tommy became Tommy – but after he lost everything. What does he do when he has nothing? How does he make things work?”
As the spinoff begins, Tommy is essentially homeless. He leaves New York with nothing but money, guns and burners, “just everything he had on his person,” said Chicago native Joseph Sikora, who plays Tommy, in a live conversation on Instagram. “So you’re gonna watch Tommy rebuild himself in real time.”
Chicago will be a major character in “Force,” just as New York was in the original “Power” series, said multi-platinum rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, in a video with Sikora on XXL. Jackson is co-creator, executive producer of the “Power Universe” and a co-star, as Kanan Stark, former mentor to Ghost and now a foe. “Knowing Tommy’s temperament, knowing that he’s headfirst with everything he does, it’s just exciting out the gate. Like from episode 1.”
He’s headed to California for a fresh start. But first, while stopping in Chicago to close an old wound, he runs into a maze of family secrets.
As the consummate New Yorker, Tommy will be confounded at first by Chicago’s segregation, “so I think that is going to be a really interesting topic for us to tackle, the
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