Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger Comes To TV

Marvel’s Superhero Teen Romance Gets Freeform Series Order

♦Over at Variety, news has reached us that Marvel\s Cloak and Dagger has been commissioned for a full series by Disney’s young adult network Freeform…

Freeform is venturing into the Marvel universe. The younger-skewing Disney-owned network has greenlit Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger with a straight-to-series order, Variety has exclusively learned. Described as a superhero love story, Cloak and Dagger is based on the titular comic book duo (also known as Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson) who have appeared in Marvel Comics classics, including Spiderman and X-Men stories.

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.

No writer has been attached to the series, but the search is currently under way. Marvel Television and ABC Signature Studios will co-produce.

Marking the network’s first-ever Marvel series, Freeform is following in the footsteps of big sister net ABC, which has a slew of Marvel properties on its slate including Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter, plus Mockingbird spinoff Marvel’s Most Wanted and a top-secret Marvel project from John Ridley in development. Getting Freeform into the Marvel game is a smart move for Disney-ABC, as the cable network is held to lower ratings standards than a big broadcast network. (ABC has struggled with ratings for Agent Carter, which remains on the bubble in the wake of critical praise.)

Superhero fare is a new genre for Freeform, which recently pushed into fantasy fare with Shadowhunters. That drama was just renewed for a second season, and Cloak and Dagger will pair nicely with the saga series, broadening the net’s programming.

www.variety.com