Every MCU 2018 Project Ranked By Anticipation

Now that The Defenders is over and Luke Cage's world has gotten a whole lot bigger, the sky is the limit for his second season. All the expected faces will be back, including Misty Knight, Claire Temple, Shades, and Mariah Dillard, but this time around they'll also be joined by Gabrielle Dennis as Tilda Johnson and Mustafa Shakir as John McIver, the two characters known by comics fans respectively as villains Nightshade and Bushmaster.

On top of that, Danny Rand - the Immortal Iron Fist, Protector of K'un-Lun, etc. - will be turning up to continue developing his friendship with Luke, the seeds of which were planted in The Defenders, giving fans the long-awaited Heroes for Hire pairing they've been waiting for. With such new characters now in the mix, it'll be interesting to see how much Luke's life has changed from season one and how a lot of loose threads left open will be dealt with, whether it be what Mariah and Shades are up to now in filling the void left by Cottonmouth or whether or not - for better or worse - Diamondback will resurface.

A popular criticism of the first season was that it lost a lot of steam following Cottonmouth's death halfway through the season, switching to a campier tone with Diamondback's arrival, and it's hard to imagine everyone involved hasn't taken that to heart. From how the events of The Defenders has affected everyone, particularly Luke and Misty, to the presence of so many villains old and new to Danny being around, there's a wide breadth of inherent storytelling potential that will hopefully result in a far more even run of episodes.