Black Lightning‘s cast of characters just got a little larger.
Deadline reports that former The Game star Hosea Chanchez is joining The CW series in the recurring role of Marcus Bishop, an ASA operative codenamed Shakedown. Shakedown is in league with the brutal Dr. Helga Jace (Jennifer Riker) who was last seen carrying out a test on the pod children that she knew would kill a fair number of them so it’s safe to say that if Shakedown is in league with her, he’s likely bad news.
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According to the report, Shakedown is described as “irreverent, bitter, and impulsively violent” with the ability to generate vibrations and frequencies at will. The ex-Air Force officer also killed his superior officer after a poor performance review caused him to be passed over for a promotion. He met up with Dr. Jace at Ft. Leavenworth, signed on with the ASA, and is said to take pleasure in his “high body count on his covert missions”.
While the Marcus Bishop and backstory name won’t ring any bells for DC Comics fans, the codename Shakedown will. In comics, Shakedown is a member of the villainous Masters of Disaster. Created by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo and first appearing in Batman and the Outsiders #9 in 1984, the character’s real name and history was never revealed in comics but, like the upcoming television counterpart, could literally control the ground beneath him thanks to geokinesis.
It also seems like Black Lightning‘s Shakedown will have another tie to his comic book counterpart. Last night, Tobias Whale (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III) was finally able to access the ASA briefcase thanks to the help of Todd Green (R. J. Cyler) and it’s revealed that the shady government organization has been developing metahumans (aka, the pod kids) for their own project Masters of Disaster.
The addition of Shakedown further makes good on showrunner Salim Akil‘s comments made to reporters at San Diego Comic-Con last July that there would be more metahumans coming to Freeland in season two — and not all of them good guys.
“You know, one of the things I was saying about the upcoming season is that we’re doing is I want to give a nod to comic books in a stronger way,” Akil said. The first four episodes are called ‘The Book of Consequences: The Rise of the Greenlight Babies.’”
What do you think about the addition of Hosea Chanchez as Shakedown? Let us know in the comments below.
Black Lightning airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.
