In news regarding one of the most unlikely superhero projects in the works, Freeform’s ‘Cloak & Dagger’ TV series is suddenly moving forward fairly quickly. The project was first announced last April but in November it was announced that the projects release date had been pushed back for additional pre-production. But it seems that things are set to roll.
First a director for the pilot has been announced, Gina Prince-Bythewood. Price-Bythewood has a long string of successful films, usually aimed at the African American audience, under her belt, beginning with 2000’s ‘Love & Basketball’ and also including ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ and ‘Beyond The Lights’. With her husband Reggie Rock Bythewood, she co-created the upcoming FOX event series ‘Shots Fired’ starring Sanaa Lathan, Stephen James, Helen Hunt, Richard Dreyfus and Stephen Moyer.
The news of Price-Bythewood’s joining ‘Cloak & Dagger’ came via Twitter, first from the account SeasonZero.com and was then confirmed by the director herself.
Gina Prince-Bythewood (#ShotsFired) is set to direct #MarvelsCloakAndDagger pilot for @freeform https://t.co/UfyevPSbaR
— SeasonZeroCom (@SeasonZeroCom) January 24, 2017
Making my two boys very happy… https://t.co/r5Lxt1EuCJ — Gina PrinceBythewood (@GPBmadeit) January 24, 2017
‘Cloak & Dagger”s showrunner is Joe Pokaski formerly of ‘Daredevil’ and ’Heroes’. In addition to having already worked on one Marvel series, ‘Daredevil’, this project reportedly reunites him with one of the stars of ‘Heroes’ and ‘Heroes Reborn’, Noah Gray-Cabey, who played Ali Larter’s son Micah Sanders. Gray-Cabey is all grown up now and has continued to work, most recently on the series ‘Code Black’.
Gray-Cabey has reportedly been cast to play Tyrone “Ty” Johnson a.k.a. Cloak, who commands the powers of darkness, which also allows him to teleport.
Also reportedly cast is Debby Ryan a former Disney kid, who had roles on ‘The Wizards of Waverly Place’, ‘Hannah Montana’, ‘The Suite Life On Deck’, ‘Austin and Ally’, ‘Girl Meets World’ and ‘Jesse’ as well as the TV movies ’16 Wishes’ and ‘The Suite Life Movie’.
In more adult-skewing fare, Ryan has also acted on ‘Private Practice’, ‘The Glades’, and the Star Jones-produced ‘Daytime Divas’, a dishy parody of Jones’ time as a panelist on ‘The View’.
Ryan will, of course, play Tandy Owen who has the powers of light, usually shown as her projecting light daggers.
Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb previously discussed the show’s directing by saying:
“It’s a love story that happens to have characters that have always traditionally been in that age group. It’s not like we took something and made it into a YA. It speaks to a YA audience and is a YA property. Would I do Punisher on Freeform? I don’t think that’s going to connect the same way.”
Freeform officially describes the show as:
This exciting new series is an adaptation of the beloved Marvel characters aimed squarely at young adults. This live-action interracial romance follows Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, 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.
‘Cloak & Dagger’ have been a fairly constant presence in the Marvel Universe since they were introduced in 1982. Originally, their powers were the result of being injected with an illegal experimental drugs. Later, they were described as mutants (most likely to boost sales). They are also sometimes referred to as “mutates,” which basically splits the difference, in that they had latent mutant powers which the drugs activated.
Filming is due to begin in February.
What do you think of Gina Prince-Bythewood directing this project? What do you think of the casting?
Sources: MCU Exchange, Comic Book Movie
