Cloak and Dagger on Freeform (ABC Family)

[Ambrosia Slaad]

It was just announced that Disney-owned Freeform (formerly ABC Family) will be adapting Cloak and Dagger (possible future spoilers from the comics) into a live action, "young adult" targeted TV series.

[Feros]

I would guess anti-drug use will be a major theme...

[atheral]

Hmmm...wonder if this will be part of the greater MCU like the other TV/Netflix series are.

I assume it would be as basically any and all Marvel series that are being produced now have at least a tangential connection.

hidden due to not knowing how bad a spoiler this is:

I also wonder how they will deal with their origin since they (Marvel) cant use the M word. Are they more Inhumans?

[Freehold DM]

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

It was just announced that Disney-owned Freeform (formerly ABC Family) will be adapting Cloak and Dagger (possible future spoilers from the comics) into a live action, "young adult" targeted TV series.

HOLY S##*

This is one of my all time favorite pairings.

Are these guys in the marvel tv universe or is this something else?

[Freehold DM]

atheral wrote:

Hmmm...wonder if this will be part of the greater MCU like the other TV/Netflix series are.

I assume it would be as basically any and all Marvel series that are being produced now have at least a tangential connection.

** spoiler omitted **

re: spoiler

Spoiler:

They will probably be considered altered humans due to drugs but in humans isn't off the table.

[Freehold DM]

I'm so excited! Amby has, as usual, made my day better.

[Feros]

atheral wrote:

Hmmm...wonder if this will be part of the greater MCU like the other TV/Netflix series are.

I assume it would be as basically any and all Marvel series that are being produced now have at least a tangential connection.

** spoiler omitted **

Thoughts:

Going Inhuman would work fine, especially if the chemist uses fish oil as a base for the synthetic heroin...

[Alzrius]

I really want to know if this fits into the wider continuity of the MCU or the X-Men movies, or is just going to be stand-alone.

[Philo Pharynx]

Alzrius wrote:

I really want to know if this fits into the wider continuity of the MCU or the X-Men movies, or is just going to be stand-alone.

It's being done by disney, so it can't fit into the X-Men continuity unless there's a weird collaboration with Fox. If that were the case, I'm sure the trades would have more info on this.

[Ambrosia Slaad]

Huh. I always thought they got their powers

Spoiler:

from drugs, but apparently they were retconned into being mutants.

Well, we've seen Cloak's Darkforce in both Agent Carter and Agents of Shield, so maybe C&D will get their powers from IGH in Jessica Jones?

[GreyWolfLord]

I'm old. I first thought it was referring to the old Cloak and Dagger film.

Sorry for the bad quality...couldn't find a trailer that looked better on youtube.

Cloak and Dagger TV spot 1

Cloak and Dagger TV spot 2

Loved that film. Especially since I had been in San Antonio and recognized parts of the Riverwalk!

[Damon Griffin]

GreyWolfLord wrote:

Loved that film. Especially since I had been in San Antonio and recognized parts of the Riverwalk!

My wife complained that they got the names of the bus routes wrong. :)

"Take the J bus..." It's all numbers! No 'lettered' bus routes!

[Duncan7291]

I loved the movie also. Didn't it have a quick glimpse of the morst notorious game of all time (aka ET)?

[Freehold DM]

I truly hated that movie because I kept thinking it was about the comic book and it wasn't.

[Charles Scholz]

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

Huh. I always thought they got their powers ** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:

They visited the X-Men within the last 5 years and were tested. They are NOT mutants.

[Alzrius]

I seem to recall that their powers were at least partially based on...

Spoiler:

being made to host pieces of the soul of the demon D'Spayre.

[thejeff]

But all of that was later retcon and basically inconsequential outside of the particular story where it got dealt with.

Go to the classic roots of the characters: runaways, experimental drug. Ignore everything else. Don't try to work in latent mutant/inhuman abilities messed with by D'Spayre and whatever other weirdness has accrued to them over the years.

Runaways. Drugs. Street crime. That's the essence of the concept.

[Freehold DM]

LOTS of retcons when it comes to cloak and dagger.

Ecstasy remains one of my all time favorite b list villains.

[Callous Jack]

ABC Family?
Meh, I do not have high hopes for this to be done well...

[Norman Osborne]

As for the mutant / not mutant question, the writers have flip-flopped so many times on C+D that nobody knows, least of all Tandy and Tyrone.

I agree, ABC Family / Freeform (when did this happen?) seems a bad fit...a good C+D adaptation should be just as dark as the MCU Netflix shows.

[MMCJawa]

I was hoping this might be either a netflix or movie MCU property. ABC Family seems an odd home for this, given some of the adult themes.

And yeah....I think the mutant connection has since been retconned away.

[Damon Griffin]

Norman Osborne wrote:

I agree, ABC Family / Freeform (when did this happen?) seems a bad fit...a good C+D adaptation should be just as dark as the MCU Netflix shows.

I won't say C+D are the best fit for Freeform, but I'm getting fairly burned out on "dark". IMHO, the dark-to-light spectrum for comics on TV or in development is currently:

Dark (9): Agents of SHIELD, Arrow, Gotham, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Defenders, Walking Dead

Twilight (3): Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Lucifer

Light (3): Supergirl, iZombie, Agent Carter

More are coming, and I imagine most (but not all) of them will lean more toward dark than light: Brooklyn Animal Control, Concrete, The Disciples, Dreadstar, Empire of the Dead, Essex County, Global Frequency, Harrow County, Hellfire, Krypton, Lazarus, Legion, Marvel's Most Wanted, Night Mary, Outcast, Powers, Preacher, Red, Sex Criminals, Tales From the Crypt, Umbrella Academy, The Wicked + The Divine, X-Men...

[atheral]

Well there are still talks of Marvel's Damage Control to make an appearance, that should be significantly lighter.

[Damon Griffin]

atheral wrote:

Well there are still talks of Marvel's Damage Control to make an appearance, that should be significantly lighter.

And Concrete should as well, but that will still leave the landscape overwhelmingly dark. I have no idea what tone Wynonna Earp takes, as I haven't seen even a preview/commercial of it. I know it started last Friday.

I'm sure there are other series in development I left out. Hopefully W. Earp is the only current one I overlooked.

[Norman Osborne]

Damon Griffin wrote:

Norman Osborne wrote:

I agree, ABC Family / Freeform (when did this happen?) seems a bad fit...a good C+D adaptation should be just as dark as the MCU Netflix shows.

I won't say C+D are the best fit for Freeform, but I'm getting fairly burned out on "dark". IMHO, the dark-to-light spectrum for comics on TV or in development is currently:

Dark (9): Agents of SHIELD, Arrow, Gotham, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Defenders, Walking Dead

Twilight (3): Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Lucifer

Light (3): Supergirl, iZombie, Agent Carter

Again, for me it depends on the actual program. Supergirl wouldn't work dark, just like Jessica Jones wouldn't work light and fluffy.

C+D should tend more towards the dark side of the spectrum.

[Rosgakori]

First trailer for Cloak & Dagger!

And it looks actually pretty good.

[Aberzombie]

Yeah, I'll admit I was surprised the trailer made this look decent. I figured with the show being on ABC Family, it'd be something like that Pretty Little Liars crap, but with super-powers.

As is, I'll probably give it a shot.

[Vidmaster7]

I've loved cloak and dagger since I was like 12 I Hope they do them justice. I wish it had been a Netflix series but maybe it will be good.

[MMCJawa]

The show is apparently going to be pitched more to the YA crowd, so my biggest concern is focused on it emphasizing the "star-crossed lovers" angle versus actual comic elements.

[atheral]

It's been awhile since I brushed up on Cloak and Dagger, but if I remember correctly, isn't part of their setup the fact that they need to be near each other to keep their abilities (and occasionally personalities) stable?

That would mean they could play up the star crossed thing in an interesting way, at least at first. It could get very old very fast if they overdid it.

Based on the trailer, which seems to all take place early in their discovery of their powers and connection, unless they are going to drag the story out everything in it will probably occur in the first couple episodes. If they did that then transitioned to more action it could be ok.

[Vidmaster7]

Yeah dagger will pop if she doesn't have cloak around to drain off her excess energy and cloak will drain people if he doesn't have her around. Think of it like one has a portal to the positive energy plane in them and the other the negative energy plane and they have to stay near each other to cancel it out.

[Rysky]

It’s to air on Thursdays.

[Vidmaster7]

So wait is this already airing? How have I completely missed it?

[Benchak the Nightstalker]

The article Rysky posted, which is from 2 weeks ago, said it’s supposed to start airing next year.

[Vidmaster7]

Ah reread it and noticed the 2018 this time. I feel that article's title was mis-leading

[Ambrosia Slaad]

Cloak & Dagger will premiere on June 7th, 2018.

New sneak peak video

[jemstone]

Niiiiiice.

[Vidmaster7]

Gonna need to watch this one.

[Freehold DM]

I'm down.

[Vidmaster7]

Anyone seen the first 2 episodes yet? Very grim so far.

[Freehold DM]

Taped it, will watch later.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

It was ok. We'll see where it goes.

[Greylurker]

So they had the first 2 episodes on Showcase here in Canada, but near as I can tell they aren't going to have the rest of the series.

[Vidmaster7]

well that is silly grey.

[WormysQueue]

Like it so far (3 episodes in). It's nice that it starts slowly and not directly throws you into the action. As it seems, they heavily changed the backstory for the couple, but on the other hand, Cloak and Dagger are very mysterious characters so to put their origin story into New Orleans kinda make sense (and I hope they'll expand on certain themes of episode 3 quite a bit as that's just my cup of coffee).

[Vidmaster7]

Yeah pacing is slow but its been interesting. They are taking some liberties with there powers for sure. (the whole visions thing) The constant lighting to emphasize there whole ying yang partnership thing is pretty cool. I do hope they are going to put some action in it. I get going slow with it though don't want to kill your budget to fast.

[GreenDragon1133]

I'd noticed the pacing as well. Its Netflix pacing. And I realized Agent Carter S1, AC S2, and Inhumans all used Netflix pacing as well. Excluding season 4, Agents of SHIELD is the only TV series in the MCU that hasn't used that pacing.

AoS being a more episodic series, as opposed to a 8-13 hour story. And AoS best season (S4) used three stories told over 6-8 hour each.

[Vidmaster7]

I think inhumans was a great example of taking it to far. Ofcourse that was not the only problem with that show.

[Mark Hoover 330]

I have to say, so far I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. First off, it takes place in New Orleans but none of the characters seem to look or sound like they're from the Big Easy. I'm not saying they need to be café au lait drinking, jazz listening caricatures, but at least have an accent maybe?

Then there's their powers. I wasn't a religious C&D fan back in the day but I remember their abilities being a lot more cerebral. Cloak was a baddie in a fight b/c his darkforce had a physical heft to them, but Dagger had emotion lasers; I don't remember her ever stabbing someone like an actual knife.

Then again, there have been some cerebral moments in the series. These cut-scenes with visions of hopes and fears. So far I've enjoyed these scenes, but they have the capability of being VERY preachy, and in the process being something the creators are beating the audience over the head with.

As for wanting there to be more action I suppose that'd be fun, but I'd rather see more detective/espionage type stuff. Tandy and Ty are a couple teenagers and while both have been exposed to the darker side of street life, neither seems like a fighter type so it wouldn't make sense to have any Netflix-style hallway brawls.

Instead I look forward to sneaking, interrogations, traps, escapes, you know... real Cloak and Dagger type stuff!

[Vidmaster7]

I think the thing thats bugging me about it right now is there powers are coming off as some sort of religious force trying to push them in the right direction and I don't care for that.