‘Raising Kanan’ promises plenty for its fifth and final season

“A fifth season is always a high-wire act,” he says. “You want to get it right, and you want to make sure that you’ve earned the energy and attention of your viewers.” More important? “That the questions we’ve asked over the prior four seasons are fully answered in that fifth,” Penn says.

Detailing the rise of a drug dealer in the 1990s, “Raising Kanan” gave plenty of attention to a host of characters, including his mother, Raq (played by Tony winner Patina Miller), rival drug lords and dutiful soldiers. To wrap up their stories, Penn envisioned a final episode that would keep the audience engaged.

“As the final seconds tick off, I hope they’re like, ‘That was really worthwhile,’” he says. "That’s what you aim to do.”

With spinoff series in the works, there are ways to explore other angles that might have emerged.

Miller says she was thrilled to have such a complete journey with her character.

“I fully got to live in my character and be powerful but also show extreme vulnerability,” she says. “That was important for me. We’ve gotten to do everything and you can’t say that all the time about the projects you work on. Everything I wanted to do, I got to do on this show.”

Joey Bada$$, who plays Kadeem “Unique” Mathis — Raq’s rival and love interest — says “Kanan” may have looked like a crime-family drama from the outside, but “once they engaged, they saw great writing and great storytelling.”

The actors, Penn says, didn’t have to know the world of drug dealers to embrace the story.

“Did I run a crack empire?” he asks. “No, but I’ve been a father. I’ve had a son. I’ve experienced tragedy. I’ve experienced loss. I’ve had success. And when you can get that, that’s when the real sort of magic happens.”

Joseph Sikora, an actor on other “Power” series, directed an episode in the final “Kanan” season and was so attuned to the world, “it made it easy,” Miller says. “How exciting to be there and be able to support. … You’re proud, even when you maybe shouldn’t be.”

“He was open to ideas,” says London Brown, who plays Kanan’s uncle. “I didn’t know it was his first project to direct, but it was great. I’d work with him again.”

Adds Penn: “It was meaningful to have all this institutional knowledge on set and share part of the journey with one of the guys that started it for us. There were multiple moments where I just sort of stepped back like, ‘Wow. This is kind of amazing.’”

Now as the finale approaches, Mekai Curtis, who plays Kanan, says “you’re always looking for something that’s going to continue to push you. Season 5 is no exception. I genuinely think every day there was a new challenge in front of us. We all jumped at it … and that’s all you can ask for as an actor. There was nothing particularly for me that I was like, ‘Oh, this is a bucket list moment.’ I think those came as each scene arrived.”