‘Raising Dion’ Trailer: A New Take On The Superhero Origin Story

People always delightfully say that kids are special. But what if your kid is the kind of “special” that suddenly grows superpowers out of the blue? That’s the predicament single mother Nicole (Alisha Wainwright) is facing in Michael B. Jordan’s new drama with Netflix Raising Dion. 

Based on Dennis Liu’s comic book, Raising Dion centers on Nicole who is left to raise her son Dion, played by newcomer Ja’Siah Young, after the death of her husband Mark (Jordan). The normal dramas of raising a son as a single mom are amplified when Dion starts to manifest several mysterious, superhero-like abilities. As seen in the trailer, the kid can teleport, he can move things with his mind, and he has this ability to create these solar system-like lights. Now, Nicole must keep her son’s gifts a secret with the help of Mark’s best friend Pat (Jason Ritter) and protect Dion from a nefarious government organization out to exploit him while figuring out the origin of his abilities. As she sets out to do this, she also discovers that her husband’s death might not have been so accidental after all.

Raising Dion: The Parental View of a Superhero Origin

Strangely enough, Raising Dion is very reminiscent of another Netflix series dealing with kids namely Stranger Things. It has very similar tropes with a kid having mysterious powers and a dark organization out to get them. Plus, they’re also similar in the fact that both protagonists had parent or parent figures out to protect them with their lives. What gives Raising Dion a fresh take on an otherwise cliche childhood superhero origin trope is its focus on Nicole, the mother.

While a lot of superhero origin stories deal away with the parents pretty quickly or not at all, Raising Dion puts a mom front and center. With Dion’s age, it’s hard for the kid to understand how to use and control his newfound powers. It’s terrifying for sure. And it falls on Nicole who doesn’t have those powers and who don’t understand them to raise him and protect him.

According to showrunner Carol Barbee, she approached the series as a love letter to moms. “Sometimes the difference between becoming a hero or becoming a villain is how you were raised. How you were loved,” Barbee said in an interview with IGN. “No one feels capable of raising a child, you just learn as you go…She [Nicole] has to keep Dion safe from the world and the world safe from Dion. She has to figure out what her son is capable of while letting him grow up. Hard for all of us to do.”

While the trailer is already quite impressive, we’ll still have to wait and see how this new perspective on the superhero origin story plays out. In addition to Wainwright, Jordan, and Young, other cast members include Jason Ritter, Jazmyn Simon, and Sammi Haney

The first season of Raising Dion hits Netflix Friday, October 4th.