Bushmaster And Nightshade Cast For Luke Cage Season 2

07/05/2017 04:25 pm EDT

Marvel and Netflix have officially announced two new cast members for the second season of Luke Cage, officially heralding the arrivals of a pair of Marvel Comics villains to the MCU.

Gabrielle Dennis of the HBO show Insecure is joining the cast as Tilda Johnson, AKA Nightshade, while Mustafa Shakir of The Night Of will be playing John McIver, AKA Bushmaster.

They will star in Marvel's Luke Cage alongside returning cast members Mike Colter, Simone Missick, Rosario Dawson, Alfre Woodard, and Theo Rossi.

Marvel describes Tilda Johnson as "a brilliant, holistic doctor with a complicated history in Harlem where, as much as she tries to stay far from trouble, it seems to always find her."

Shakir's character McIver is "a natural leader, brimming with charisma, whose mission is focused on Harlem and vengeance."

"Mustafa's incredible presence and power ignited us from our first meeting, and Gabrielle brings the charm and smarts to a very complicated role," said Jeph Loeb in the press release. "Both will be wonderful additions to our already magnificent cast."

"I can't wait for audiences to see the compelling paces we put both Mustafa and Gabrielle through," said showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker. "From the moment you see each of them on screen, I feel they will be powerful additions to the world of Marvel and Harlem's Luke Cage."

In the comics, Bushmaster ends up kidnapping Dr. Noah Burstein and forces him to administer the same experimental procedure to him that he did to give Luke Cage his powers.

Nightshade is the villain in one of the most infamous Captain America storylines in which she's responsible for turning Steve Rogers into a werewolf known as "Cap Wolf."

After taking down the threats of Diamondback and Copperhead, it doesn't look like life will get any easier for Harlem's hero. We'll see how Luke Cage fares when the show returns sometime in 2018.

We'll be able to see Colter reprise the role in The Defenders on August 18.

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Marvel's The Defenders is the miniseries that will bring together all of Marvel's Netflix stars, including Iron Fist (Finn Jones) Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), and Luke Cage (Mike Colter), to protect New York City from its greatest threat yet.

Marvel's The Defenders is developed by Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez. The miniseries will also feature Sigourney Weaver as the villain, Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver), and several recurring guest stars from Marvel's Daredevil, Marvel's Jessica Jones, Marvel's Luke Cage, and Marvel's Iron Fist, including Eka Darville as Malcolm Ducasse, Simone Missick as Misty Knight, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth, Scott Glenn as Stick, Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker, Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, and Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing.

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