'Cloak & Dagger' Producers on What Sets the Show Apart From Other Marvel Stories

Marvel Television's first series on Freeform is set to debut later this summer, based on the House of Ideas' original teenage runaways, Cloak & Dagger.

New details are starting to come to light on Marvel's Cloak & Dagger, and the series producers and director are opening up about the adventures of Ty and Tandy. Speaking at the Freeform Summit, showrunner Joe Pokaski spoke about why the characters were important to crack.

"When [Marvel TV's Jeph Loeb] and I started talking about it, when we started talking with Freeform, I think the two most important things were Tandy and Tyrone," Pokaski said. "And we wanted to make sure we understood them, first and foremost.

"The most important thing was to tell the story of a young woman who gets these powers, who does the wrong thing sometimes and slowly finds herself a hero. And the story of a young black man who has a harder climb than Peter Parker, that has a harder climb than Tony Stark, and yet has to overcome and protect everybody else."

Gina Prince-Bythewood, who directed the pilot and is helming the Silver & Black movie in the Spider-Man universe, spoke about how important the story was to her own family.

"I have two boys who watch everything and a couple years ago, my youngest son said, 'How come I never get to see superheroes who look like me?'" Prince-Bythewood said. "And that just stayed with me and here's an opportunity where I got to tell his story and then also, as a woman, to be able to tell a young woman's story who's a hero as well. It just seemed like a perfect opportunity."

Prince-Bythewood added that the story needed to be told in a "grounded, authentic way" within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"A Marvel hero always begins with the person, not the power," said Jeph Loeb. "We're not really interested in the cape or the cowl or, in this case, the cloak. I mean, we've got to get that right. That's absolutely important, but it's more important that you care about Tyrone and that you care about Tandy and then the rest follows."

Cloak & Dagger premieres on Freeform on June 7th.