‘Luke Cage’ renewed for second season

Netflix continues to build out comic book universe

Streaming giant Netflix on Sunday announced that it has renewed the Marvel drama Luke Cage for a second season. The series is Marvel’s third drama for Netflix, joining Daredevil (renewed for its third season) and Jessica Jones (renewed for season two), with a fourth — Iron Fist — due in 2017. The stars of all four shows will team for Marvel mash-up The Defenders, which is awaiting a premiere date at Netflix, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Luke Cage stars Mike Colter as the titular superhero, an African-American ex-con with bulletproof skin and superhuman strength living in Harlem. The series has been praised for its inclusive casting and timeliness, with TV critic Daniel Fienberg calling it,“vital and alive and of-the-moment.”

Mahershala Ali, Alfre Woodard, Simone Missick, Theo Rossi and Frank Whaley round out the cast of the drama that was developed by Cheo Hodari Coker and Marvel. It’s unclear when season two of Luke Cage will debut, given Netflix’s crowded Marvel landscape and The Defenders, in which Colter will reprise his role alongside stars from Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist.

Marvel has become a major provider of content for Netflix. In addition to the four dramas and the upcoming Defenders, Marvel next has Daredevil spinoff The Punisher, starring Jon Bernthal. The comic book powerhouse also has FX’s Noah Hawley X-Men Take Legion due on top of ABC veteran Agents of SHIELD and Imax co-production The Inhumans, the latter of which is set for fall. On the development side, Marvel is working with Hulu on The Runaways and scored a straight-to-series order at Freeform for Cloak and Dagger, the latter of which is due in 2018 and remains uncast.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2016.

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