'Luke Cage' Adds More Female Directors for Season 2

The second season of Marvel's Luke Cage will hit Netflix on June 22 and it looks like nearly half of the season's 13 episodes will be directed by women.

As reported by Blackfilm.com, directors Neema Barnette, Millicent Shelton, Kasi Lemmons, Steph Green, and Salli Richardson-Whitfiled will be joining Lucy Liu in directing episodes of Luke Cage's sophomore season. This is in stark contrast to the Netflix series' first season where none of the episodes were directed by women.

The addition of the five directors beyond Liu -- who was previously announced by Marvel back in July as the director for the second season premiere -- makes Luke Cage the show with the second most female directors in one season across all of the Marvel Television properties. The second season of fellow Netflix series Jessica Jones takes the top spot as all 13 of the episodes in its second season were helmed by women.

While each of these directors have extensive experience in directing for television, a few of have specific experience with superhero television as well. Shelton has directed episodes for two other Marvel Television series, Hulu's Runaways and Netflix's Jessica Jones as well as episodes of The CW's DC Comics-inspired shows, The Flash and Supergirl. Richardson-Whitfield has directed Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D for ABC.

As for what fans can expect in season two, the teaser for Luke Cage showed that Mike Colter's titular hero hasn't missed a step since he was last seen working with The Defenders last year and it looks like that at least part of The Defenders will continue. A new image from Luke Cage's second season in Empire gave fans a fresh look at Luke teaming up with Danny Rand/Iron Fist (Finn Jones). It's a pairing that gives fans a taste of the heroes' iconic Heroes for Hire pairing, a television series for which isn't completely off the table.

Showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker told Empire's Pilot TV that the combination of the two heroes is "inevitable."

"It's something that's in the air," Coker said. "Internally at Marvel Television, everybody knows there's a part of that combination that is inevitable, particularly when you watch them together in the way that we did it. It feels right. It feels good. It feels like, 'I want to see more of this combination. Heroes for Hire is really not off the table.'"

Are you excited for Luke Cage's second season? Let us know in the comments!

Luke Cage will debut on Netflix on June 22nd.