Freeform is jumping into the superhero genre with Marvel's Cloak & Dagger. Set to premiere June 7, we finally have our first trailer.
Tandy Bowen (Olivia Holt) and Tyrone Johnson (Aubrey Joseph) not only discover they have powers, but quickly realize their abilities actually compliment each other. Cloak & Dagger is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity, but in the comics, their story begins in the X-Men corner.
The series follows in the footsteps of Hulu's Runaways, one of the best received Marvel shows of the year. Cloak & Dagger could be a great fit a network like Freeform, which currently hosts young adult shows like Grown-Ish. While Cloak and Dagger do actually appear in Runaways comics, Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb says there are no immediate plans for crossovers.
There's no dialogue in the trailer, but it's clear Cloak & Dagger is a different kind of YA superhero series than Marvel's Runaways. Most obvious, it's not a team-up. The synopsis suggests the series will explore interracial romance, and the footage shows these characters from two different backgrounds living parallel lives will have to join together to discover the full capacity of their powers. Tandy (Dagger) can emit sharp knives made of light and cleanse people using her light energy. Tyrone (Cloak) is a living portal (allowing him limited teleportation) to the Darkforce dimension, who can engulf anything into darkness.
A sneak peak released by Freeform in January shows how the two characters first meet and we see their powers in action for the first time. That soulful song playing is Lucien Parker's "Impossible."
Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan created Cloak and Dagger in 1982. The characters were first introduced into the Spidey universe in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64. The live-action adaptation appears to change their origins a little bit. In the comics, they gained their powers by being injected synthetic heroin, which activated their latent mutant genes. They banded together to survive on the the streets and to fight the organizations that held them against their will.
Joe Pokaski (Daredevil) wrote the pilot and also serves as series showrunner. The pilot is directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, who will also direct Sony's upcoming Silver & Black. The world premiere screening of Cloak & Dagger is less than two weeks away. A cast panel and the series debut will take place at SXSW festival in Austin, Texas March 11.
Are you excited for Marvel's debut on Freeform? Let us know in the comments.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Autumn Noel Kelly started as a staff writer for Newsweek in 2015. She covers anything in the comic book world—TV ... Read more
