‘Task’ Season 2: Mahershala Ali Joins Mark Ruffalo in HBO’s Best Crime Series!!

Mark Ruffalo is about to clash with another Marvel star in Philadelphia. Mahershala Ali, the lead of the MCU‘s long-gestating Blade movie, has been tapped for a major role opposite the Incredible Hulk in Season 2 of the hit series Task at HBO. Other than the four-time Oscar nominee, who led the crime drama to widespread acclaim last year, Ali is the first cast member to be officially confirmed for its sophomore outing. It’ll mark a return to the premium cable network for him after the two-time Oscar winner’s role in Season 3 of True Detective back in 2019.

Not much is known about Task Season 2 so far, but Ali‘s casting adds a bit of clarity about what’s next for Ruffalo’s FBI agent Tom Brandis. After Season 1 put Brandis at the helm of a task force to crack down on a spree of violent robberies and forced him to confront his own family tragedy, he’s now set to helm a new task force that becomes more complicated as he digs deeper. The more he uncovers, the harder it is to determine who the real target is. Ali will play Eddie Barnes, who is described as “a seasoned and well-respected DEA agent in Philadelphia” whose unit clashes with Brandis’s team as their operation unfolds.

Pre-production is still underway, though things now appear to be heating up with a big new name in the fold in a key role. Ali has an impressive resume to his name with a particularly strong run between 2017 and 2019, when he earned two Academy Awards for his supporting roles in Moonlight and Green Book, appeared as Miles Morales’ uncle Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, embraced villainy as Vector in Robert Rodriguez‘s Alita: Battle Angel, and picked up his True Detective Emmy nomination. He’s also been recognized for his small-screen comedic efforts in Hulu‘s Ramy. Task will be yet another high-profile part on the horizon for him, as he’s also set to star in Laika‘s long-gestating animated film Wildwood later this year and return as Aaron in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse next year. There’s also Blade, though, while he may not have been recast, the outlook on the film hasn’t been great.

Who Starred in ‘Task’ Season 1?

It’s unclear if anyone else from Task Season 1 will be returning for more alongside Ruffalo at this time. The series’ first outing featured Tom Pelphrey, Emilia Jones, Jamie McShane, Sam Keeley, Thuso Mbedu, Fabien Frankel, Alison Oliver, Raúl Castillo, Silvia Dionicio, Phoebe Fox, and Martha Plimpton among its ensemble. Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby masterminded the series and is back at the helm as writer, executive producer, and showrunner. HBO is betting big on Ingelsby to expand the story in a meaningful way with Season 2, making Task more than a limited series like Mare, but a potential mainstay for the network that will continue to evolve Brandis as a character.