Next Superhero TV Show to Feature Interracial Romance

Cloak and Dagger promo image

Variety has the story: Freeform (which used to be ABC Family, making it another Disney company) has ordered a TV series version of Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger concept and characters. Here’s the description:

The live-action interracial romance follows the duo, two teenagers from very different backgrounds, who find themselves burdened and awakened to newly acquired superpowers while falling in love — Tandy can emit light daggers and Tyrone has the ability to engulf others in darkness. They quickly learn they are better together than apart, but their feelings for each other make their already complicated world even more challenging.

Previous reports said that the show, apparently in the works since 2011, would be set in “post-Katrina New Orleans“. No word on whether that’s still the plan. They’re currently looking for a writer, because that’s how TV works these days. Figure out your next project, then plug someone in to make it happen.

Cloak and Dagger promo image

I enjoyed the concept when I first encountered the characters, who were created in 1982 by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan. (Mantlo currently lives in a rehabilitation facility after a hit-and-run accident in 1992, and contributions to his care are appreciated.) I do hope they handle the themes of drug abuse and cross-culture interaction sensitively, though. I haven’t read those early issues in forever, but I remember it sometimes being a little heavy-handed about the blonde white girl being from a better neighborhood than the poor black guy. They were both teenage runaways who got their powers from altered heroin, although the drug use was forced on them.

On the other hand, reading the Wikipedia summary of their history says that Cloak ran away because his friend was mistakenly killed by cops, so that’s timely.



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