Marvel reveals cast for Cloak and Dagger TV show

The teen superhero duo first appeared in a 1982 Spider-Man comic

15 Feb 2017

Marvel has revealed the leads for its upcoming superhero teen drama Cloak and Dagger.

The series, currently in development for Disney-owned US network Freeform, will see The Night Of's Aubrey Joseph as Cloak, and Disney Channel regular Olivia Holt as Dagger.

The characters may not have the cultural recognition of Iron Man or the X-Men, but they've been fixtures of the comic book universe for more than 30 years. First appearing in 1982's Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #62, the creations of writer Bill Mantlo and artist Ed Hannigan, the duo has headlined its own series multiple times, and guest-starred in the animated Ultimate Spider-Man series.

In the comics, the young heroes are two of Marvel's darkest, with a shared origin that navigates abuse, racism, police brutality, and drugs. Both runaways, Cloak is Tyrone 'Ty' Johnson, a black teen who escaped after his friend was shot by police, while Dagger is Tandy Bowen, a white girl who grew up in privilege but ran away to spite her distant and uncaring mother. Meeting on the streets of New York, they end up relying on each other to survive, until they are kidnapped for illegal drug tests and human experimentation.

Surviving and escaping, they find themselves changed. Ty has become a creature of shadow, able to turn intangible and teleport through a nightmarish 'Dark Dimension' but consumed by a need to feed on the light and life force of others. Tandy, in turn, discovers she constantly generates light that she can manipulate into physical blasts - commonly 'light daggers' - or use to heal others, but endures extreme pain herself if too much builds up.

Their powers in symbiosis, with Cloak draining Dagger's excessive light energy to sustain them both, help them become figures of the 'War on Drugs', targeting the criminals who abused them while defending the homeless population of New York. Eventually, the two form a romantic relationship, as well as a crime-fighting one.

The official synopsis given for Cloak and Dagger implies the show will be leaning hard on the romance angle. Marvel says "the live-action interracial romance follows the duo, two teenagers from very different backgrounds, who find themselves burdened and awakened to newly acquired superpowers while falling in love — Tandy can emit light daggers and Tyrone has the ability to engulf others in darkness. They quickly learn they are better together than apart, but their feelings for each other make their already complicated world even more challenging."

The supporting cast will consist of Andrea Roth as Tandy's mother Melissa Bowen, "an eternal optimist" struggling with "her new existence", while Gloria Reuben and Miles Mussenden play Adina and Michael Johnson, Ty's parents. Adina is described by Marvel as "[investing] every aspect of her being into giving her son the life she believes he deserves", but so over-protective she "forgets to love him", while Michael is "a working-class father who does what he can to ensure his son will grow up to be a great man".

They will be joined by Life of Pi's James Saito as Dr Bernard Sanjo, "an emotional cornerston in Tyrone's life", and Carl Lundstedt as Liam, a "salt of the earth townie" who viewers will first meet as Tandy's partner in crime and stand-in boyfriend. True Detective's JD Evermore joins as Detective Connors, a police officer with a dark secret.

The show has been a long time in the making. It was first announced in 2011, intended for ABC Family, Freeform's precursor. Held up for years, it was confirmed to be in active development again in 2016. The characters' backgrounds have been changed somewhat, with the series at one point planning to shift locations to a post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

That last point may be less specific now - Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana in 2005 - but broadly matches character descriptions for the show. Dagger is now described as having "watched as her family was destroyed by a disastrous storm that uprooted her life", while Cloak "wanted nothing more than to prove he was fearless, but when everything he held close was taken away, life taught Tyrone to be afraid".

Joe Pokaski will serve as showrunner on Cloak and Dagger. No stranger to superhero television, Pokaski was a writer and story editor on Heroes, and penned episodes of Daredevil.

"The characters of Tandy and Tyrone have always stood out to me ever since I first met them in the pages of Marvel comics when I was a boy," said Pokaski, via statement. "When Olivia and Aubrey read for the roles, these characters leapt off the page. We're so excited to see what these talented young actors bring to the Marvel Universe."

The Cloak and Dagger series will be set in the same shared Marvel Cinematic Universe as the movies and other TV shows such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, but no details have yet emerged on how exactly the characters are linked. Despite the pair's close links with Spider-Man, it seems unlikely that July's Spider-Man: Homecoming film will devote any time to establishing the characters.

There's no air date for Cloak and Dagger yet, nor any word of a UK broadcaster, but the series is expected to launch in 2018.