Nemesis pits two unstoppable forces against each other in Detective Isaiah Stiles (Matthew Law) and Coltrane Wilder (Y’lan Noel.) But that’s because there were two masterminds pulling the strings behind the scenes in series co-creators Courtney A. Kemp and Tani Marole.

It would be easy to assume the new Netflix series is going to be your typical, run of the mill story about cops and robbers. But the show takes big creative swings in both the plot and characters alike, allowing it to go deep on topics of masculinity, fatherhood and partnership in just eight episodes. Kemp told DECIDER during a recent chat that the show differs from Power in certain regards, but notes she had the same powerful feeling during Law and Noel’s chemistry read as she did when she saw Naturi Naughton and Omari Hardwick read for Tasha and James ‘Ghost’ St. Patrick.

“We definitely want to explore themes of masculinity, of marriage, partnership, what it means to be a partner, what it means to be a leader,” Kemp said of Nemesis. “This show isn’t about adultery at its core, like Power was. This show was more about saving a marriage, keeping a marriage, being in a marriage, and being in partnership.”

What results is a passionate cat-and-mouse chase between two legendary foes who are both at the top of their game. Isaiah and Coltrane are driven by their devotion to their jobs and they responsibility they have to their loved ones, but it drives them both to drastic consequences. Coltrane, a criminal with a heart of gold, is ruthless when he has to be. But the most shocking part of Nemesis is seeing the levels Isaiah is willing to stoop to in order to catch his nemesis once and for all.

Marole also shared with DECIDER that both he and Kemp wanted the show to explore “the masculine burden” of trying to get fatherhood right after having lost both of their fathers.

“We also wanted to reframe what it was like to be a father, especially an African American father, or just a father in general in 2026. I don’t necessarily believe fathers get the worst rap, but I don’t believe they get the best rap. And sometimes the things that you break, you can’t show the intention behind that, but you’re breaking it,” he said.

Keep reading to see what Kemp and Marole had to say about their experience casting the roles of Isaiah and Coltrane, the heist films that inspired the series, and their favorite parts of the show. Also, scroll up to watch the Nemesis trailer to see what’s coming in this thrilling new Netflix series.

DECIDER: I would love to start off by asking a little bit about what was your goal or approach for this series. Was there anything in particular that you wanted to do differently than the Power franchise, or was there anything that you particularly wanted to explore with this show?

COURTNEY A. KEMP: We definitely want to explore themes of masculinity, of marriage, partnership, what it means to be a partner, what it means to be a leader. Both of our male characters not only are married, but they also lead groups of people. And so those things are definitely in there. In the original Power, New York is such a huge character, and here, Los Angeles is just as big a character. So that’s something that we wanted to explore that was new. But some of those same conflicts. This show isn’t about adultery at its core, like Power was. This show was more about saving a marriage, keeping a marriage, being in a marriage, and being in partnership, in addition to all the fast-paced action and crime and, you know, cops and robbers.

Can you tell me a little bit about what led you to settle on Y’lan and Matthew. They have such star power, so it’s great to see them leading this series. So what do you think? 

TANI MARONE: Y’lan came in and was one of the strongest people from the outset. Every time he did a chemistry test, he just really was a presence in the room every time. And it was almost difficult for a while finding our Stiles. And then Courtney literally randomly one day said, ‘Hey, how about Matthew Law?” And I was like, “Who the hell is that?” She’s like Abbott Elementary! […] So he sent in a self tape and it was just like, okay. And he came in him and called him and Y’lan. Their chemistry was just like [claps] it was that. And we knew it from the jump. And at that moment we were like, all right, we have a show. There was no doubt in our minds that we had a show and shout out to Courtney in her wisdom and shout out to Evan Washington, because he did suggest Y’lan in the writers room and me being an Insecure fan, I was like, Daniel? And he was just like, yep, that guy. And he called it. So shoutouts to Courtney and Evan.

CK: And I will just add that Y’lan was so good at playing Coltrane, like he came in with such a take on it, which is what you see in the show. It really didn’t change. And he came in and he was so strong that it was actually like he kept overwhelming people who would come in and act opposite him. It wasn’t until Matthew came in and then we saw that Matthew could hold the screen with him. And I will tell you, that experience was very similar to when Naturi came in to audition for Tasha, because Omari was so much of a presence that we needed someone who could match him, and she just came in and knocked down the walls with her performance. And I was like, Oh, I have the same feeling in my body. I was like, oh, this is the right person. And that’s just like a physical thing. 

Family is such an important theme on this show, but it feels like fatherhood specifically is very central to the series. Could you talk a little bit about why that is?

TM: Beyond the all the surface patriarchal society stuff and all that stuff. Courtney and I, we both, unfortunately, lost our fathers. She lost her father prior to Power, my father passed prior to our writers room. So I think those things were heavily on our minds going into it. But I think we also wanted to reframe what it was like to be a father, especially an African American father, or just a father in general in 2026. I don’t necessarily believe fathers get the worst rap, but I don’t believe they get the best rap. And sometimes the things that you break, you can’t show the intention behind that, but you’re breaking it. Both these men, both their relationships, they’re strong and yet they’re weak. Coltrane has a really great connection with his wife, but he really wants what he wants. He really wants to help his crew out. He really wants to do what he’s great at, but he really wants to honor his commitment and his love to his wife. Stiles loves his wife. He loves his family, as you can see, but he just can’t help but chase Coltrane and avenge what’s going on. And it’s interesting to watch the masculine burden, so to speak, on both those gentlemen played in completely diametrically opposed ways.

Absolutely. I’m so sorry to hear that, by the way. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. Is there anything you can possibly tease about when Isaiah and Coltrane unite on screen?

CK: I can tease something. When you meet them together, at first, one of them has the upper hand, and then the next time, the other one has the upper hand, and then the third time… you’re gonna have to get there. But there’s definitely a sense of the cat-and-mouse game. It’s like a tennis game. Who has the advantage in that moment, who has the advantage in that moment. As a woman, I definitely felt like, oh, we’re writing into a little bit of masculine posturing here, which is okay, because that’s how they would interact. And then later, as it starts to get real, you really start to focus on revenge. And I’ll leave it at that.

I love the big reveal at the end of the first episode that shows that Candace and Ebony also know each other. Can you talk a little bit about why you did that and what can you tease about their friendship?

TM: All right. I can give you the fake, pseudo-like film school answer, or I can give you the real answer.

CK: Not the real answer, Tani.

TM: It was a situation where we knew where the men were headed, and we knew the women were going to, their worlds were going to orbit each other. But it was during the process of the pilot where we were working with our executive producers. We really honed down like, all right, well, how do we really interweave this world? And then that’s when we came to the conclusion. All right, the wives there, we’re going to really integrate their lives, much to the chagrin of the husbands or their non-knowledge. Spoiler alert. From there, we knew exactly what that show was and how it can go up, expand out, and then re-contract back in.

CK: I mean, I’ll be very clear. We were always going to have them be friends. We were not going to reveal that in the pilot. And then we had to accelerate the story a little bit and get the audience to go, ‘Oh, I need to find out why this is.” And so Tani came up with this. I’m going to give him his credit. He came up with that great idea of having them be together at the end of the pilot in the way that you see them.

Do you have a favorite moment in the series or a scene that you’re excited for viewers to see?

CK: We don’t probably don’t have the same one. So I’ll go first. There are a few scenes with Isaiah’s father throughout the show that are really important to me, just in terms of how I got along with my father, who, as Tani said, passed in 2011. And there is a lot of how Stiles misses his older brother and my older brother died in 2021, so there are pieces of it that are really important to me. Also, toward the end, Matthew has a kind of a tour de force performance in one of the episodes where he’s just so amazing, and I’m really looking forward to people seeing that because it’s not O’Shon, you know what I mean? So I really want people to see that.

TM: Episode 6, first eight minutes. Holler at me when you’re done.

How do you guys navigate writing these really intricate heists?

CK: One of my philosophies of writing is to hire people or work with people who are better than you at stuff. So I’m going to defer to my co-creator who is really the heist guy. 

TM: It’s just really loving the genre. That’s really what it is. We have wonderful writers in the room. We were surrounded by great co-EPs, staff writers, etc. But it was really just loving the genre. We really love the genre. We studied it from Le Cercle Rouge, to Rififi to Heat, all the way to Set It Off. We went the whole gamut – Ocean’s Eleven – and then really looked at the genre, tried to figure out how to subvert it. We’re the fan first. So it’s like, what do we want to see? What’s cool? What’s interesting? So no bank heists, I’ll tell you that right now. Spoiler alert – no bank heists. But after that, it was just about what’s exciting? So whether it’s the intro heist or it’s in the middle or whatever, you just see something we knew that had been done in a similar way, and we needed to do it in our own way, have our own flair, and then also show people of brown and Black culture, doing these suave, wonderful things that we never get to see and ordinarily. 

Is there anything you guys can tease for fans?

CK: Well, he teased Episode 6, the first seven minutes, so that’s pretty amazing. I would say the women are not on the sidelines. I will say that. There’s a lot for everybody to watch here. There’s a lot for every different kind of viewer. Although the men are on the poster, this is not a show just about them. It’s a show about their families and their lives, and these women come to the forefront.

What was your approach in developing these rich female characters? What were you thinking when it came to their wives and also to their partners?

CK: Tani brought up a good point. We both are lovers of the heist genre and one of my favorite movies of all time is Ocean’s Eleven But the thing about Ocean’s Eleven is that Julia Roberts’ character is not really a character. She’s another thing they’re stealing, right? Now, she does a great job with that. In these kinds of movies, the women never get to do anything, they never get to be people. They’re never part of the fun. And they’re also never really realized.

When I go into any type of show that I’m creating, I want to watch women who are like me. I don’t want to watch women that I don’t know, and I don’t want to watch women who are just there as scenery or decoration. Now, it’s a Courtney Kemp show, so everybody looks great. The men look great, the women look great, everybody looks great. No matter your pronoun, you look great. But the thing is, I definitely want for the women to drive story. That’s what never happens. So we never get to drive story. You can always remove the woman from it. And it’s like if you think about Ocean’s 11, if you took Tess out of it, it wouldn’t be as emotional and as satisfying as a movie. But the rest of the movie could still happen. You can still steal that money. For me, I want to make sure that you that you cannot tell the story without those women, like you cannot tell the story of Ghost without Angela and Tasha. You cannot tell the story of Tariq without Alex Capri. They’re part of the story. And so that’s what I always think is like when people talk about like, rich female characters, it’s like, no, it’s a character who happens to be integral to the plot, and therefore you have to spend time with that person.

Absolutely! I felt that every scene Cleopatra Coleman had on the show was just so powerful.

CK: Cleopatra Coleman, she’s amazing. I’ve been wanting to work with her for years. I mean, she was the only person I wanted to play Ebony. And she’s amazing.

Do you guys have the show plan as a limited series, or do you know what you have planned for the future or Season 2? What are you thinking?

TM: No, it’s an ongoing [series]. We have an arc in mind. We need the numbers to go up so we can get a renewal guy. So run it up, guys. Run it up. And back to one question. You said, well, I can tease is every character drives the story forward and there are no episodes off. Every episode moves forward. This is not a second viewing situation. This is first screen viewing. Put your phone down. Eyes up. Enjoy. Surround systems up.