We were fans of Netflix’s Altered Carbon when it premiered earlier this year, os it’s good news to hear that the series has been renewed for season 2. However, Season Two of Altered Carbon will come with a big change, as series lead Joel Kinnaman has been replaced by Avengers and Captain America star Anthony Mackie!
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Variety reported the big casting switch, which could throw some people for a serious loop, if they’re unfamiliar with what Altered Carbon is all about. The series chronicles a future where human consciousness has been digitized onto disks called “Stacks,” which are implanted at the brain stems of the majority of humans. When a body is severly damaged or dies, a stack can simply be transferred to a new organic or synthetic body (known as “sleeves”), seemingly continuing their lifetime across an indefinite span. Of course, sleeves don’t come cheap, making the immortality yet another commodity wholly owned and controlled by the wealthy elite, who rule like gods over the future society.
Season 1 introduced us to the protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs, who is the surviving member of an elite rebel military group (“The Envoys”) that was wiped out centuries ago. In Season One, Kovacs is brought back for his one-of-a-kind investigative skills, to find out who tried to murder the world’s wealthiest man, Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy). That search resulted in Kovacs learning his own sister was pulling the strings of high society, and that his Envoy mentor and former lover Quellcrist Falconer is still alive. Last we saw, Kovacs set off across the world and universe to find Quellcrist, and obviously that search brings about some significant changes.
The entire “race switching” flame-war that normally comes with these casting changes should be largely invalid here. The premise of Altered Carbon clearly allows for it, and part of Season One’s storyline with Joel Kinnaman was that “Takeshi” had been torn from his natural Asian identity, and placed in the white body of a dead cop for his “resurrection.” Asian actors Will Yun Lee and Byron Mann actually played the original Kovacs and when of his earlier sleeves (respectively), during the flashback sequences of Season One. So long as the Season Two storyline has a compelling reason for Kovacs to have switched sleeves again, fans should largely be accepting of the change — especially with it being a fan-fave like Mackie in the role. No word yet on how the change in lead may effect the returns of other Season One cast members, or if a mostly new cast will be introduced.
Do you like the change of Mackie in for Kinnaman? Let us know in the comments!
We here at ComicBook.com already broke down how Altered Carbon is probably the closest (and best) thing to a live-action anime there is right now, so be sure to check out Season One if you’re a fan of the genre!
No word on when Altered Carbon Season Two will premiere on Netflix. Showrunner Laeta Kalogridis (Alita: Battle Angel) will be back, and Alison Schapker (Lost, Fringe, Almost Human) will assist her as co-showrunner.
