Fans got an update on the long-absent Raising Kanan character, Famous, as a part of an upcoming Season 4 episode description.
Shawn 'Famous' Figueroa (played by Antonio Ortiz) has been a part of the hit drama since the very beginning as the musically inclined best friend of Mekai Curtis's Kanan.
However, since the end of Season 3, fans have not seen or heard from Famous, and he remains off the Raising Kanan Season 4 cast list. So, where is he?
What Happened to Famous on Power Book 3: Raising Kanan?
Antonio Ortiz's Raising Kanan character, Famous, continues to be absent from Season 4, but the series has offered fans a bit of an update.
Season 4, Episode 5 (titled "The Nail That Sticks Up" and set to debut on Friday, April 4) included mention of the long-missing character in its official description, bringing up "Famous's mother desperately [trying] to find him:"
"Joyce's condition worsens. Famous's mother desperately tries to find him."
It seems that, as of the beginning of Raising Kanan Season 4, Famous is on the run, and that is why he has not yet appeared in the new run of episodes.
In Season 4, Episode 2, Malcolm Mays's Lou-Lou (who has been the subject of a recent exit scare in the series) was asked by a record producer about Famous's whereabouts, but the only answer he could muster was "I don't know."
Thankfully, this absence only seems temporary. It is not as though Famous went missing and then was never heard from in the series again.
New episodes continue to bring the character up, meaning he likely is not done on the show and will come back in some form somewhere down the line—either this season or next.
But, for now, the show's creative team is keeping the character on the bench before any sort of triumphant return.
This seems to all be part of a larger playbook for Raising Kanan. Series creator Sascha Penn addressed this kind of storytelling in a 2024 conversation with People, divulging that they "[try] to really get the audience to care about these characters" by taking them on these unique arcs:
"We've tried to really get the audience to care about these characters, to be invested in them and their lives, and I think the vision for this season is sort of the vision for every season on some level, which is to keep people invested. I think what we've tried to do — and I defer to the audience as to whether we've been successful — is create an arc for these characters, to start them in one place and take them somewhere else. I think, again, in terms of something that's been really gratifying is how much people have responded to Marvin [London Brown] and his story, for example."
It just seems as though, right now, Famous is on one of those arcs, dealing with something he never has before. The last fans saw of Ortiz's Raising Kanan character, he was being arrested in the Season 3 finale.
The Season 3 closer saw Famous put in handcuffs and taken into police custody as a suspect in the murder of career criminal Freddy Williams. Things were made worse when Famous's mother arrived at the police station, submitting the gun she found in Famous's closet as evidence.
In the time since then, perhaps, he was able to break free from the law and went into hiding. His mother ultimately betrayed him at the end of Season 3, so, of course, he does not want to see her and has gone quote/unquote missing in her eyes.
But surely something will bring him out of the shadows and force him to reckon with the consequences of his actions.
Raising Kanan Season 2 continues with new episodes debuting on Starz every Friday.
