Mere days before the show’s April 4 season two premiere, the cast and creative team behind Marvel and Freeform’s series, “Cloak & Dagger,” dropped by WonderCon Anaheim 2019 to preview the show’s “bigger and better” second season and the new challenges the show’s characters will face.
“If season one was the call to action, season two is the baptism by fire,” began executive producer/show runner Joe Pokaski. “(Tandy and Tyrone) are trying to decide what kind of heroes they’re going to be and before they finish their first sentence, someone starts murdering people.”
It’s no secret that season two will see Detective Brigid O’Reilly (Emma Lahana) become the sinister antihero, Mayhem. Pokaski teased what it was like introducing Mayhem to the show. “When we looked at Cloak and Dagger, I thought, this will be gold if we get to a second season. To have an ally turn into a- I’m hesitant to say the word villain, because when you see what she does, you’ll kind of be on her side. But it’s gift from the gods of Mantlo and Hannigan. (‘Cloak & Dagger’ comic creators)”
Lahana offered her thoughts on playing the duality between O’Reilly and Mayhem. “It’s a very complicated character,” Lahana said. “There’s two different versions going on, it’s like a Jekyll and Hyde situation. She’s a woman at war with herself. There’s another side of her that she can’t keep down anymore. One of Mayhem’s superpowers is that she really doesn’t give a shit.”
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“The thing about Mayhem that’s interesting is that she’s not a straight up villain,” Lahana continued. “You don’t disagree with her 100%. Nothing is black and white. We allow things to be complicated.” Lahana also delved into how she differentiated O’Reilly and Mayhem’s personalities. “They are two sides of one coin, so you have to keep them similar, but you have to differentiate them enough that you could look at one and say, that’s Brigid, or that’s Mayhem. Mayhem doesn’t blink as much because she’s always on, whereas Brigid is more protective. Brigid is like putting on a comfy old sweater, but Mayhem is fun to play.”
Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph, who play Tandy and Tyrone respectively, talked the new situation that their characters find themselves in this season. “Season one was about Ty and Tandy getting to know each other,” Joseph said. “This season, we kind of just saved the world together, so we have that connection.”
“Ty is kind of going crazy being by himself in the church,” Joseph said. “There’s a part of him that wants to talk to Tandy, but seeing Tandy finally getting a better life- he doesn’t want to ruin that. There’s an interesting dynamic there.”
Holt dived into how Tandy and Tyrone will handle the arrival of Mayhem. “We’re really going to challenge the audience a lot this season,” Holt said. “Tandy and Tyrone are going to challenge each other as well on what they feel like is right. It’s going to be a challenging lesson for them to learn.”
Holt and Joseph also shed a light on the importance of the series tackling adult topics such as suicide, drug addiction and sexual assault. “Marvel is one of the biggest platforms in the world,” Joseph said. “So the fact that we get to tell a story to an audience that holds weight is important. Knowing that there’s a lot of people that go through these things, you can’t just give a lackluster performance.” “Tandy and Tyrone can talk about it all day long, but they’re going to take action and they’re not going to stop at no,” Holt added.
“One of the things about Cloak and Dagger is that they always were equals,” said Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel Television. “One was not more powerful than the other. They were as close to a pair as you could find in the Marvel Universe. It’s not like one has powers and the other is trying to catch up. That’s the kind of feeling you get watching ‘Runaways.’ That was like a basketball team. There’s some stars and there are some up and comers. But the drama of ‘Cloak and Dagger’ is that Ty and Tandy are there to support each other.”
Speaking of “Runaways,” when asked if “Cloak & Dagger” would crossover with the Hulu series, Loeb, after a lengthy silence, said, “Let’s just say, you won’t be disappointed.”
“Cloak & Dagger” returns for its second season on Thursday, April 4 on Freeform.
