Omari Hardwick has been hard at work for over two decades. The successful actor has the blessing of consistent work despite a signature role in his rearview. While he keeps pretty busy, fans cannot help but wonder if the Power frontman will ever return to the role that defined his career. Hardwick recently opened up about Ghost and if he’d ever play the character again.
Omari Latif Hardwick was born in Savannah, GA. The college athlete had NFL aspirations early on, but life had different plans for him. He tried out for the San Diego Charges but threw himself into acting after not being chosen in the draft. Hardwick lived in his car for a while until things picked up, first scoring a role in the film Sucka Free City. From there, he landed a series regular spot on the television series Saved. He was also the leading man in Floetry’s music video for “Say Yes.”
Hardwick worked regularly and consistently, even scoring a nomination at the Black Reel Award in 2010 for Best Breakthrough Performance in For Colored Girls. 2014 would bring with it Power. The role has become his biggest to date, spawning a television universe based on his crime boss, Ghost, and his family, friends, and associates. The series ended with Ghost being gunned down by his own son, a death fans are speculating will be retconned eventually.
While everyone keeps trying to resurrect Ghost, Omari has moved on to other roles. Army of the Dead and Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas were a major successes for him on Netflix in recent years. He also starred in Paramount’s Fantasy Football opposite Kelly Rowland and Marsai Martin. This year he will star in The Mother, currently in post-production. He is acting opposite Jennifer Lopez in the Netflix movie that follows an ex-assassin who comes out of hiding to protect “the estranged daughter she left earlier in her life.”
Omari has been very candid about Power’s success and how it changed his life. As a result, he is not offended by people wanting him to return to the role and recently opened up about his thoughts on Ghost’s final moments and if he will ever play him again. The actor has even created a plan on how ghost could return to the show to help keep it’s success going.
Omari believes that Ghost might not be around in the physical form but could possibly live up to his namesake as a spirit. “He really lives in a ghost space at this point, so now that we know he’s not on Earth, there is a reality where you can have flashbacks or [something else],” he told Higher Learning With Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay. “I would come back perhaps in a spinoff just in a space to give leverage to the show to go, OK, Ghost is speaking to Tariq, but we know he’s not actually there.”
Whatever hey decided to do; Omari says he will be down because of how the show changed his life. Fans still aren’t buying it, with Mary J. Blige even speculating that he survived and could play her character’s sister if he ever returns.
