Luke Cage Season 2: Release Date, Latest News, Casting and The Defenders

Kasey Moore What's on Netflix Avatar
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Luke Cage will be playing a pivotal role in The Defenders releasing on August 18th. In anticipation of The Defenders, we’re previewing the next season of each of the four Defenders including Luke Cage season 2. We’ll be covering all the news we know up until now plus predict the release date.

Luke Cage first appeared in Jessica Jones as a love interest and saw Luke working in the bar which Jessica Jones regularly went to. His first season where he appeared alone see’s a much younger Luke and how he came to become Power Man.

Once The Defenders has released, we’ll then update this article with any brand new snippets of information we learn from the eight new episodes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHckszP0cWs

Returning Cast Members

Here’s a list of the currently confirmed returning characters for season 2:

  • Mike Colter (Luke Cage)
  • Simone Missick (Misty Knight)
  • Theo Rossi (Hernan Alvarez/Shades)
  • Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple)
  • Alfre Woodard (Mariah Dillard/Black Mariah)

More Powers for Luke Cage?

Known as Power Man, his skillsets in the TV series is a lot more limited than that in the comic books. In the comics, Luke Cage has a deep knowledge of martial arts as he studied with Iron Fist which as of right now hasn’t happened. It’s likely that with the two meeting up in The Defenders, it could be the case that Iron Fist will be training Luke Cage next season.

We’re also yet to see the full extent of his powers. We know he’s bulletproof but in the comics, he was also able to survive biological attacks and extreme temperatures.

Hero Crossovers for season 2

We mentioned how Iron Fist could play a big role with Luke’s training. Depending on the timeline, we could also see Jessica Jones play a big role in the second season as most of the first season was set before the events of JJ season 1.

We also know in the comics that Luke Cage frequently came across Captain America, could we get the first MCU character turn up in the Netflix series rather than just be mentioned?

Villains in Luke Cage Season 2

Announced earlier this month, Netflix has already signed up two new villains for the new season. Mustafa Shakir (pictured left) will be playing the role of John “Bushmaster” McIver and Gabrielle Denis (pictured right) will be playing Tilda “Nightshade” Johnson.

In the comics, although Marvel has changed some of the comics character roles slightly, Bushmaster is known for being a crime boss who blackmails Luke with evidence to exonerate Luke. This would imply that the timeline may be split as this is likely to have taken place before The Defenders.

Nightshade, on the other hand, is a scientist who in the comics, bred an army of werewolves and also created and arm of robots too. Nightshade will be appearing in the upcoming Black Panther movie although there are conflicting reports as to who is playing her in the movie.

Season 2 Release Date

The timeline after The Defenders is relatively messy with only The Punisher season 1 to be known coming out soon after. That means that 2018 is the year when it’ll be released. We also know that Daredevil and Jessica Jones will be releasing in 2018 but in what order is not known. It’ll either be April, August or September 2018 as those are the three months when Netflix releases new Marvel shows.

Other Information for Luke Cage Season 2

  • Lucy Lui will be directing Luke Cage season 2 episode 1
  • Expect the second seaasonn too contain more of the great soundtrack we saw in season 1.

Are you looking forward to more Luke Cage? Let us know in the comments below.

Written by

Founder of What's on Netflix and based in Norwich in the United Kingdom, Kasey has been tracking the comings and goings of the Netflix library for a decade having started the site in 2013. Kasey maintains the what's new library, keeps the coming soon lists up-to-date and writes about new and upcoming Netflix movies, series and games.