Marvel's Cloak and Dagger Boss Is Working 'Very Hard' to Make That Runaways Crossover Happen

With the curse of the Divine Pairing officially broken, Marvel's Cloak and Dagger is set to pick up the pace in Season 2.

Season 1 saw embattled heroes Ty (Aubrey Joseph) and Tandy (Olivia Holt) finally embrace their destinies as heroes and secure a big win when they saved New Orleans from a surge of energy that would have destroyed the city. But it looks like their problems are only just beginning. Season 2 finds the pair going up against their friend and ally Brigid O'Reilly (Emma Lahana), who is dishing out her own brand of justice as the vigilante Mayhem. After being shot and exposed to dark energy at the end of last season, Brigid emerged from the murky waters with fresh new powers and a no-holds-barred attitude. Her violent actions against the city's worst criminals will raise tough questions for Ty and Tandy, who must figure out what kind of heroes they want to be.

Ahead of the show's return, TV Guide chatted with showrunner Joe Pokaski, who dished on what to expect in the upcoming season -- including where Ty and Tandy are headed, what Mayhem's arrival means for Brigid, and how close the series is to staging a crossover with Marvel's Runaways.

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Season 1 was such a slow build with Ty and Tandy learning about their powers. Now that they've accepted their roles as the heroes Cloak and Dagger, how does that change the pace of the show this season?
Joe Pokaski: We got to a pace in the series, probably in Episode 7 last year, which we knew was gonna be the pace of the show. Now the training wheels are off, everything just runs a little bit quicker. We certainly take some time to make sure it's always done through the lens of emotion, but I think now we're kind of up on our feet and fighting.
How would you describe Cloak and Dagger's roles as heroes Season 2?
Pokaski: If Season 1 was a call to action, we've answered it by the end of that season. Now in Season 2, we really want to focus on the question of what kind of hero, what kind of vigilante are they going to be? We see, very early on in the season, Tandy and Tyrone trying their own brand of vigilante justice. And then we very quickly put in a complication with them and recalibrate what's right and wrong in terms of taking justice into your own hand.
Mayhem has arrived. What does that mean for Brigid?
Pokaski: We get to explore a person who has no guilt. And I think there's part of us, particularly when we're driving in traffic, that wishes we could do horrible things without any guilt because we feel righteous. And I love the idea of introducing this character who does what she thinks is right; she never second guesses it. As Tandy and Tyrone run across the aftermath and see the benefits of it, they have a debate as to whether or not that's who they are.
From what we know in the comics, Mayhem operates in this gray area that's neither completely right nor wrong. How does that ideology conflict with what Cloak and Dagger are trying to do as heroes this season?
Pokaski: The interesting thing me and the writers came across very quickly when we started breaking the season is that we found we were rooting for Mayhem a lot. I think there's something in us as human beings who think all the red tape is ridiculous and that when we know who the bad guy is, we should just hurt them. We play with that issue for a few episodes and then we actually have some real ramifications for that kind of thought. Tyrone has a line about that kind of thought leading to his brother's death. We want to keep our characters on their toes and uncertain just at a time where some real danger comes to the city and they have to commit to who they are and pick a lane.

This show does a great job of tackling sensitive issues authentically. What are you looking to explore in Season 2?
Pokaski: One of the big things we came across when we started talking about what kind of world we wanted to explore was the idea of human trafficking. I came across this when I was working on my last show, Underground. I was talking to someone at a museum, a curator who was a specialist on slavery and I was like, "Where was the worst slavery right now? Is it in the Congo? Is it in Sudan?" And he kind of told me, no, it's actually in the United States along the highway system. We did some research and found out there's somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 individuals in the country being trafficked, being used for sex or for work, being enslaved. For me, Cloak and Dagger have always been the ones looking out for the people who have no one looking out for them. All the women in our writers' room really did their research and made sure we could tell a story that at least shines a light on what's going on in America.

We're still waiting for that Runaways crossover. Has there been a formal discussion about that?
Pokaski: I can say that there has not been a formal discussion.

How close are you say you are to making this happen? Is it a faraway dream or have seeds been planted?
Pokaski: I get to write a television show about my favorite characters in the world. I married way above my weight when I met my wife so I have ways of making things happen. And I'm working very hard to make that happen.

Marvel's Cloak & Dagger returns with a two-hour Season 2 premiere Thursday, April 4 on Freeform.

Season 2 of Marvel's Runaways is currently streaming on Hulu.

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