Altered Carbon Season 2 Adds Lela Loren

Netflix’s Altered Carbon has added a new cast member. Lela Loren is joining the cast as a series regular for the sci-fi series’ second season with Loren set to play Danica Harlan when the series returns sometime in 2020.

According to TV Line, Loren’s character is described as “the charming and ambitious governor of planet Harlan’s World. She has the support of the people but keeps an uneasy grip on the political players who surround her.”

Loren may be best known for her recent role as attorney Angela Valdez on Starz’s Power. On Power, Loren’s Angela was killed during Sunday’s Season 6 premiere. She’s also appeared on Bull, Gang Related, The Closer, and Covert Affairs.

Netflix renewed Altered Carbon back in 2018, and also revealed that the series would also be getting a new series lead. Season 2 will see Joel Kinnaman replaced by Avengers: Endgame star Anthony Mackie. It may seem like a big change, but within the world of Altered Carbon, it makes sense. The series, which is based on the 2002 science fiction novel of the same name by Richard K. Morgan, sees 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 severely 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.

Altered Carbon will return for Season 2 in 2020. Season 1 is available on Netflix now.