Michael Rainey Jr., also known as Tariq St. Patrick on “Power,” says he has been receiving hundreds of death threats over his role on the STARZ hit show.
The actor took to Instagram to share with his fans that some people are taking his character way too seriously. He wrote “Me going through my dms tryna figure out why I have 326 death threat messages” under two selfies of him sporting a confused face. His co-stars LaLa Anthony and Naturi Naughton both left laughing and facepalm emojis in the comments.
If you have never seen an episode of “Power,” Rainey’s character Tariq is one of the main suspects responsible for killing Ghost, who plays Tariq’s father. An episode leaked where Tariq is the one who pulled the trigger and fans were upset and sent him death threats.
The hate for Tariq’s character really picked up in season four once his sister Raina was killed on the show. Fans felt like Tariq was responsible for the murder. In season five, Tariq was kicked out of private school for selling drugs. He continued to disrespect his mom and dad on the show and fans hated him.
Multiple endings to “Power” have been filmed so fans really won’t know if Tariq killed his father until that episode actually airs. “Power” creator Courtney Kemp talked to Deadline about having multiple endings for the show just in case it got leaked.
“I will say we’ve filmed a lot of different things because things get leaked in the ‘Power’ world all the time, you know,” Kemp said. “It turns out that very often content slips away from us, so we’ve got a lot of different endings and false endings, real endings and truthful endings, all in the can.”
Although the show will be coming to an end soon, a “Power” spinoff is in the works. “Power Book ll: Ghost” will feature some of the same cast from the original show and new faces like Method Man and Mary J. Blige.
Take a look at Michael Rainey Jr.’s post below.