Cloak and Dagger firmly established itself in the MCU, operating in a corner of the world that we had yet to see. Throughout the first season, we had limited but scattered references and easter eggs to the wider MCU, ranging from Roxxon and the darkforce to mentions of Tony Stark and Danny Rand.
One neat cameo was a Stan Lee painting that took the form of a fake Andy Warhol portrait. Speaking with
Vulture, showrunner Joe Pokaski joked that it did not seem too unreasonable that Warhol would have crossed paths with Lee in an alternate universe. However, if this cameo had not worked out, the runner-up idea was to have a gigantic Stan Lee head in the finale's Mardi Gras warehouse scene.
There was one easter egg, though, that was quite exciting, a direct reference to Misty Knight from
Luke Cage. In episode 8 when Tyrone reveals his powers to O'Reilly and Fuchs, O'Reilly mentions to her shocked boyfriend that she had seen stuff like this when she was a cop in New York and asked if she had ever mentioned her friend Misty. Pokaski revealed this
Luke Cage reference was Marvel's idea:
It came from someone at Marvel. I love [Luke Cage showrunner] Cheo [Hodari Coker], and I'm a big fan of [Misty Knight actor] Simone [Missick], so I've always been like, 'What can we do? How can we get Misty Knight? She's the coolest.' Somebody had come up with the facts, like, since the Brigid character was from New York, we should reference it. Perhaps she has been friends or ridden with Misty at some point. And all parties seemed cool with it. It was one of those things where if you don't know what they are talking about, it doesn't really affect your experience.
This reference nicely fits in hand with one in the second season of
Luke Cage when, following the death of Captain Ridenhour, Nandi Tyler tells Misty she is now the highest ranking detective following the recent departures of a couple peers, one of which was O'Reilly who had "
moved to New Orleans." While it would be pretty awesome to see Misty appear, Pokaski once again made it clear that his number-one crossover dream would be with Spider-Man.
Yeah. I mean, they came from Spider-Man. There’s definitely a sense of teen angst and great power and great responsibility that they all share. But the thing I love about Tandy and Tyrone is, in the comic-book world, they show up everywhere. Someone smarter than me once called them the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the Marvel universe. They just drop in. They can show up in an X-Men book. They can show up in the big crossover event. They show up on the Runaways. They show up in the Ultimate universe. And you’re always happy to see them. That’s how I feel. I’d like to see them in the cinematic universe being the same way.
However, the problem for crossovers lies in ownership rights. Pokaski is hopeful that these issues will become less of a challenge in the future so that Cloak and Dagger can appear with other Marvel heroes, noting that Spider-Man's inclusion in the MCU is a great example of what can be possible.
I think some of the challenge is how fractured the ownership is, still. I would love for Peter Parker to walk by, but Sony owns them. You’d like someone from the films to be there, but everything is a little bit segmented. Marvel, to their credit, has let us make some vague references to other television shows and there’s hopefully some crossover potential. But the issue is being like, “Can we use this character?” and for some reason 20 years ago in the negotiations of the Spider-Man, X-Men; that character belongs over there. So I think the segmentation is a problem. Hopefully, that will get better. I mean, the fact that Spider-Man was in the last Avengers movie still doesn’t feel real, but it seems like it’s a glimmer of hope that particularly Tandy and Tyrone can play with all the superheroes at some point.
Did you enjoy the
Luke Cage reference in
Cloak and Dagger's first season? Are there any characters in the MCU you would like to see appear on the show? Share your thoughts below!