Fighting crime has never looked as good as it does in Prime Video’s newest thriller series “Cross,” and that’s all thanks to its hunky leading men: 2024 Root 100 honoree Aldis Hodge and Isaiah Mustafa.
Hodge and Mustafa star as Detectives Alex Cross and John Sampson, respectively, who work together to solve some of Washington D.C.’s most mysterious and heinous crimes, all while overcoming issues in their personal lives. Based off the best-selling James Patterson book franchise of the same name, the eight-episode series is addicting, entertaining and sure to keep audiences on their toes with plot twist and turn.
But what’s arguably more alluring is the fact that we get to see Hodge and Mustafa kick ass and take names all while looking like two of God’s greatest gifts to humanity. With their collective melanin and beard game; swag and charisma; biceps and broad shoulders, it’s an easy sell to get folks to tune in based off the strength of their fineness alone. But if you thought them being TV’s sexiest detectives was a heavy burden to carry, think again.
Speaking in an interview with The Root ahead of the release of their new show both Hodge and Mustafa admitted to being both slightly overwhelmed and extremely thankful at the new title.
“Very humbly, I ain’t mad at that. I’m just grateful that someone would even think that,” Mustafa said before later adding, “I didn’t even know, nobody ever told me about this...it’s a shock but we’re very appreciative.”
For Hodge, he jokingly leaned into the title but gave a warning about folks penning thirst tweets and leaving suggestive comments on his page:
Having been sexy for so long, it’s a gift I knew I was giving. No, but honestly, it’s funny to me especially when my mom and my sister are reading all the [online] comments. Y’all don’t realize, y’all just sitting there saying what you’re saying—but we got whole families that are reading this stuff. Y’all got to calm down. It’s a lot going on.
Hodge went on to say that while grateful for the chatter, how audiences will react to their physical looks and charm never really cross (ba-DUM tss) their minds as opposed to thoughts of how they’ll respond to their actual acting chops.
“We’re like ‘ooh, I hope they like the performance.’ Then you get online and it’s ‘SEXY CHOCOLATE,’” Hodge said with a laugh. “I don’t know if that’s the focus, but we’ll take it. We’ll accept it.”
All eight episodes of “Cross” are available to stream now on Prime Video.