Last week, several of Marvel’s casting choices for the Luke Cage series on Netflix were revealed before Marvel was willing to make it official. Today, that changed.
In a story on Marvel.com, Marvel Studios confirmed that Simone Missick (pictured above), Theo Rossi, Frank Whaley, and Rosario Dawson are among the series regulars of Luke Cage, which stars Mike Colter as the title character.
As reported last week, Missick is playing Marvel heroine Misty Knight. However, Missick’s Misty Knight will still be a NYPD detective in Luke Cage while her comic book counterpart was more often depicted as a private investigator after she left the police force. Also, it sounds like Misty will be missing her iconic bionic arm, but she will be “determined to learn the truth about Luke Cage.”
Related: Simone Missick Is Playing Misty Knight on Marvel’s Luke Cage
Whaley is playing Detective Rafael Scarfe, Misty Knight’s partner in her investigation of Luke Cage. Rossi will portray Shades, a criminal who has ties to Cage, and Dawson is reprising her role as Claire Temple from Daredevil and the upcoming Jessica Jones series. But on Luke Cage, Dawson will apparently have a much larger role as her friendship with Cage “blossoms” into something that impacts both of their lives.
Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker said Rossi’s Shades “will be someone you hate to love,” and he added that “Rossi is a swiss army knife–no matter what you bring to him, he has a tool for it–and he’s playfully unpredictable.” Regarding Whaley’s Detective Scarfe, Coker related that Whaley “has a wiry intensity” and said that “he’s a great counterpart to Misty, and a wonderful actor.”
Marvel’s Head of TV, Jeph Loeb praised Missick’s take on Misty Knight and said “Simone blew us away with her performance as the strong-willed cop on a mission.” Loeb also noted that Dawson’s “performance as Claire Temple in Marvel’s Daredevil was astonishing and we can’t wait to see her shine in Marvel’s Luke Cage.”
Netflix and Marvel have not yet set a date for Luke Cage to premiere, but all 13 episodes will drop at once some time in 2016. Production is expected to begin soon.
What do you think about the cast of Marvel’s Luke Cage? Let us know in the comment section below!
