Marvel started to expand the reach of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to television back in 2013 with the debut of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and has since brought three more original series to Netflix (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage). The Netflix shows have been praised, while S.H.I.E.L.D. continues to evolve and has faired better than fellow (cancelled) ABC program, Agent Carter. These titles are just the beginning, as Marvel continues to look for new shows to create and reach new audiences. One of those untapped audiences are pre-teens and teenagers, but thanks to Cloak & Dagger and Runaways, Marvel has options to broaden their fandom.
Cloak & Dagger is set to be the first Marvel property on ABC affiliate Freeform, while The Runaways will bring the MCU to Hulu. Since their announcements in April and August respectively, there has been very little word on the status of either project, with the exception being Cloak & Dagger being moved to a 2018 premiere. Things may be looking up for both series with a new report pointing to production beginning on both series next month.
The rumor comes from SeasonZeroCom (via MCUExchange), who revealed that Cloak & Dagger is scheduled to begin filming February 15th in New Orleans and The Runaways will start sometime in February in Los Angeles. Neither of these reported dates have been confirmed at this point. Both shows have still not made any official casting announcements either, which casts some doubt on the support. That said, if it’s true, it could lead to a flurry of casting announcements very soon.
While this should be treated as a rumor for now, the timing of the information coming out is interesting. The Television Critic’s Association Winter Press Tour is underway and is the event where all major networks come out to show interested advertisers what they have in the pipeline. As it turns out Hulu’s panel is today, so if Runaways will begin filming next month, the TCA’s would be a prime spot for the streaming service to announce the cast.
Cloak & Dagger on the other hand, would have to wait until next Tuesday to potentially have any new information come out of the ABC panel. Even if this is not the case, these announcements will have to come in the not too distant future. However, when the show was seemingly pushed back, the report said that a winter 2018 release was being eyed. Starting production now would give them an extremely long schedule, so either the start date is wrong or the series could get an earlier premiere than expected. In both cases, these announcements have been a long time coming and will hopefully be on the horizon shortly.
Cloak & Dagger will reportedly debut on Freeform in 2018. Runaways is being developed to stream on Hulu, but is currently without a release date.
Source: SeasonZeroCom [via MCUExchange]
