Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger Finds Director, Possible Stars

Gina Prince-Bythewood has been hired to direct the pilot episode of Marvel's Cloak and Dagger for Freeform, according to published reports this week. Shadow and Act and Geeks of Color are reporting Prince-Bythewood has been hired, after seemingly being confirmed by a retweet of the Geeks of Color story on Prince-Bythewood's own Twitter page. Gina Prince-Bythewood is best known for her writing and directing of the films Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights, as well as for her directorial work in the film adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. Young actors Noah Gray-Cabey (My Wife and Kids, Heroes) and Debby Ryan (Wizards of Waverly Place, Suite Life on Deck, Jessie) are also rumored to play the title roles in the new series, according to Cinemablend. Marvel's Cloak and Dagger will be a live action series geared towards young adults based on the comic book duo of the same name. The characters were originally created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Ed Hannigan in 1982. Ty Johnson (Cloak) and Tandy Bowen (Dagger) were runaways in New York City who were romantically drawn to each during their shared struggles. Eventually they were captured and given an experimental street drug by a drug cartel. The drug exposure led to the development of their superhuman abilities which gives Ty a control of darkness and Tandy a control of light. Dubbing themselves "Cloak & Dagger," the teen duo took on drug-dealers in the comics and often acted as the protectors of runaway children. Cloak and Dagger originally appeared in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, but over the years have also appeared in many different Marvel series, including their own. Joe Polaski (Underground) and John Ziffren (Switched at Birth) are attached as producers for  Marvel's Cloak and Dagger, collaborating with Megan Thomas Bradner of Marvel's Agent Carter. The series is a co-production of Marvel Studios and ABC Signature Studios, and will be the third live-action Marvel project for an ABC affiliated network following Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the canceled Marvel's Agent Carter for ABC. Marvel's Cloak and Dagger will be the first Marvel series for Freeform, which was formally known as ABC Family before being rebranded in 2016. The series is expected to join the fall lineup for the 2017-2018 television season and filming is set to begin next month in New Orleans, according to a recent story in NOLA.