Filming of the second season of Marvel’s Netflix series Luke Cage is underway, and two characters from Cage’s storied comic-book past have joined the cast. Actors Mustafa Shakir and Gabrielle Denis have joined the cast as Bushmaster and Nightshade, Marvel has announced.
Bushmaster, like Cottonmouth from the first season, is a crime boss, but he leans a bit further toward the super-powered side of things with super strength that can give Cage a run for his money.
Nightshade, on the other hand, is a scientist who has hassled Cage over the years with werewolves and robots. With how grounded the first season of Luke Cage was, it’s going to be interesting to see what the writers do with a character like that. That first season’s grounded nature gave it a solid start with some truly compelling villains, but it began to fall apart once the more comic-booky elements were introduced, in the form of Diamondback and his silly costume.
Multiple personalities, kind of
As io9 notes, Nightshade also joined the cast of the upcoming Black Panther movie, where she’ll be portrayed by Nabiyah Be. Be announced the news in a now-deleted tweet. Nightshade is, I believe, the first character to pop up twice in the semi-connected universe that contains Marvel’s films and Netflix shows (not counting Quicksilver, who appeared in Age of Ultron and in Fox’s last few X-Men films). Meanwhile, the first season’s Alfre Woodard played Black Mariah in the show and a completely-unrelated character named Miriam in Captain America: Civil War. This universe thing is getting complicated.
Luke Cage season 2 is filming now, but won’t see release until at least 2018. No official date has been revealed.