Sci-Fi Series The 4400 Starring Mahershala Ali Is Now Streaming for Free on Tubi

Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali has built an extensive resume playing villains. He ruled Harlem as Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes in Luke Cage, voiced the Prowler in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and played Titan in Invincible. Ali was slated to lead his own franchise as Blade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he confirmed last month that Marvel scrapped the production. While that vampire hunter project remains shelved, audiences can watch Ali portray a superpowered character in a science fiction TV series streaming for free on Tubi.

Ali landed a major breakout role on The 4400, which premiered on CBS in 2004. He plays Richard Tyler, an Air Force pilot who vanished during the Korean War. Tyler reappears in modern-day Washington inside a sphere of light alongside 4,399 other missing people, none of whom have aged.

Instead of prolonging the central mystery, The 4400 provides clear answers by the end of its five-episode first season. Humans from the future abducted people across decades, starting in 1946. These future humans injected the abductees with a neurotransmitter called promicin to give them superhuman abilities, then returned them to 2004 to help humanity prevent an impending catastrophe.

Those abilities emerge gradually across the series. In season 2, government agency director Dennis Ryland (Peter Coyote) is revealed to have dosed the returnees with an inhibitor to suppress their gifts. The inhibitor causes severe, life-threatening side effects, sickening many returnees until doctors formulate a cure. In contemporary interviews, Coyote defended Ryland’s motives, which grounded the character’s antagonistic role. During a confrontation with his subordinate Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch), Ryland argues, “If it comes down to a choice between the safety of the American people and the welfare of the 4400 – Tom – that’s no choice at all.”

Stopping the inhibitor causes powers to manifest rapidly. Richard develops telekinesis, which he initially struggles to control. Ali departed the main cast at the end of season 3 following a storyline where Richard’s daughter, Isabelle (Megalyn Echikunwoke), turns into the central villain. Ali returned as a guest star in season 4, showing full command over his powers and displaying the controlled intensity that later defined his villain roles.

Beyond traditional action scenes, The 4400 examines how superpowered individuals disrupt society. Shawn Farrell (Patrick Flueger) heals people, while movement leader Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell) builds an independent sanctuary city for returnees. Regular citizens risk their lives taking promicin on the black market, even though the drug carries a fifty percent mortality rate. Other factions conspire to control or destroy the returnees. The storylines frequently focus on the consequences of specific powers, such as reading pheromones or generating enzymes that trigger weight loss.

Although CBS canceled The 4400 after four seasons due to low ratings and the Writers Guild of America strike, series creators René Echevarria and Scott Peters brought the main storylines to a definitive finish. The finale shows a altered world where characters deal with the fallout of widespread human transformation. The series offers a complete story and a look at Ali near the start of his screen career.

The 4400 is available to stream on Tubi.

Source: Polygon