Luke Cage had a great freshman season, with a minor hiccup or two, which means season two has to up the ante. And it looks like it does, as Luke crosses enemies old and new and an old friend gets back in the game.
Specifically, Luke (Mike Colter), who has apparently spent his time since The Defenders trashing gangsters in Harlem, gets beaten up by a new supervillain in town, Bushmaster, played by Mustafa Shakir. It turns out Bushmaster is just as strong as Luke and has more moves, whereas Luke still gets by with “smack-fu.” Bushmaster wants control of Harlem’s gangs, something that not only puts him on Luke’s to-punch list, but also in the crosshairs of Mariah (Alfre Woodard,) who has consolidated her control of Harlem and isn’t interested in interlopers. Fortunately, Luke isn’t without backup, as Misty Knight (Simone Missick) has a bright shiny new robot arm to beat up goons with.
The one thing we don’t see in the trailer is Gabrielle Dennis’ Nightshade, the genius/vigilante who likely builds Misty’s new limb on the show, and who in the comics is an anti-hero who shoots first and generally doesn’t bother with questions. As the show’s larger theme seems to be about how far you should be willing to go for justice and safety, we doubt she’s just going to make fun gadgets. Similarly, considering we’ve got most of the Heroes for Hire in one place, one has to wonder if Danny Rand (Finn Jones) and Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) will pop up. But we’ll see when season two of Luke Cage arrives June 22nd.
