Freeform has released the first trailer for Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, the brand new series from Marvel Entertainment and Disney’s young adult television network Freeform. The show is an adaptation of the titular comic and tells the story of two teenagers from very different backgrounds—Tandy Bowen (Olivia Holt) and Tyrone Johnson (Aubrey Joseph)—who find themselves burdened by and awakened to newly discovered superpowers, which also happen to be mysteriously linked to each other.
Heroes and CSI alum Joe Pokaski serves as showrunner, but he already has experience in the Marvel universe as he also served as a producer on the first season of the Marvel Netflix series Daredevil. And Freeform scored Gina Prince-Bythewood (Beyond the Lights) to helm the pilot, serving as a primer of sorts before her Marvel Comics feature film Silver & Black for Sony Pictures.
This trailer does a nice job of juxtaposing the two different characters with their very different lives, while also showcasing their powers in unique and compelling ways. There’s obviously the potential to explore issues of race and identity here, and that seems like that may be the focus of this series.
Marvel TV has had a somewhat amorphous road thus far. It began with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which filmmaker Joss Whedon helped create for ABC in between Avengers movies. That show got off to a somewhat rocky start, and ABC’s two subsequent series Agent Carter and Inhumans also debuted to mixed results—Agent Carter was cancelled after two seasons, and Inhumans seems to be D.O.A. There’s been greater success on Netflix, where interlinked stories led to the crossover event The Defenders, and while critical reactions are hit and miss for those shows, audiences seem to like them.
Cloak & Dagger is another example of Marvel TV branching out, as Marvel’s Runaways debuted on Hulu late last year as a new, younger-skewing kind of Marvel TV show. Cloak & Dagger looks to be the same, and so far it looks pretty good. Check out the Cloak & Dagger TV series trailer below. The series debuts on June 7th on Freeform.
