CLOAK & DAGGER
SEASON 1

A STRAIGHT-TO-SERIES ORDER AND A NEW ORLEANS SHOOT

HOW CLOAK & DAGGER REACHED FREEFORM

Freeform’s straight-to-series order for Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger was reported on 7 April 2016, with no cast or crew yet announced. Joe Pokaski had signed on as showrunner by August 2016, and Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph were announced in January 2017.

Filming began by 8 February 2017 in New Orleans under the working title Shadows. The pilot, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, wrapped on 24 February, and production resumed on 24 July and finished on 2 November 2017.

TWO TEENAGERS WHO NEED EACH OTHER

WHAT THE SHOW SAYS ABOUT ITS TWO LEADS

Pokaski said on 5 June 2018 that the show tells the comics’ story “way the hell out of order,” and that the Darkforce dimension would get its first look in the series. He said on 6 June that the pair are tied together:

“these two need each other and are equals to each other.”

Joe Pokaski, 6 June 2018

He said the same day that the team had talked about how to “artfully cross Tandy and Tyrone over” with the MCU.

HOLT, JOSEPH AND A NEW ORLEANS CAST

WHO IS IN THE CAST, AND WHO SCORED IT

Olivia Holt plays Tandy Bowen and Aubrey Joseph plays Tyrone Johnson, with Andrea Roth, Gloria Reuben, Miles Mussenden, Carl Lundstedt, J. D. Evermore, Emma Lahana and Jaime Zevallos in supporting roles. Mark Isham composed the score, which was released digitally on 6 July 2018, and a soundtrack album including Holt’s cover of “Come Sail Away” came out on 8 June.

TWO EPISODES, THEN WEEKLY

HOW FREEFORM RELEASED THE SEASON

The first two episodes aired together on 7 June 2018, then one each Thursday, with the finale, “Colony Collapse,” on 2 August. The premiere drew 0.919 million live viewers and 1.751 million with DVR.

THE REWATCH

AN 89% CRITICS SCORE AND A SECOND SEASON

Rotten Tomatoes lists an 89% critics’ score from 54 reviews and a 63% audience score, and its consensus calls the show a “surprisingly thoughtful addition to the genre.” Metacritic gives it 68 from 15 critics. Olivia Holt won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Summer TV Star in 2018.

Freeform renewed the series at San Diego Comic-Con on 20 July 2018 for a ten-episode second season, and the show returned on 4 April 2019.

In the Marvel Marathon it is catalogued as Marvel Television and sits in the Marvel TV shows in order guide between Legion Season 2 and Luke Cage Season 2. It is not in the MCU timeline guide or the MCU release-order and series guides.