At
San Diego Comic-Con 2011,
Marvel Television head
Jeph Loeb announced that a series based on the
Marvel Comics characters
Cloak and Dagger was in development at
ABC Family. In April 2016, when ABC Family had been renamed to
Freeform, the series received a straight-to-series order from
ABC Signature Studios and Marvel Television. Freeform confirmed that the series would be set in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and described it as a superhero love story, which
Variety called "a seamless fit for Freeform" given the network's target audience of "Becomers" (the 14–34 age demographic). In August 2016, Marvel Television announced that
Hulu had ordered a new series based on the comics group the
Runaways, and the studio had also begun development on a half-hour comedy series based on the
New Warriors team, featuring the character
Squirrel Girl. The latter series was being offered to cable networks and streaming outlets. Freeform ordered
New Warriors straight-to-series in April 2017. The network's EVP of programming Karey Burke explained that they were interested in a Squirrel Girl series before they ordered
Cloak & Dagger and before they knew that Marvel was developing the series. Burke felt Freeform was the best network for
New Warriors after the success of
Cloak & Dagger with young adults, and she added that both Freeform and Marvel wanted to "find the right characters that felt like they would speak directly to Freeform's audience." Burke said
New Warriors and
Cloak & Dagger would not be "particularly connected" given their different tones, but that a crossover between the two was possible. Loeb confirmed in July 2017 that these series would all take place in the MCU alongside
Marvel's other television series, as well as
the franchise's films from
Marvel Studios, but said there were no plans to have
Cloak & Dagger crossover with
New Warriors, nor have either of those series crossover across networks with the similarly youth-oriented
Runaways. Loeb explained that Marvel wanted the individual series to find their footing before crossing over with other elements of the MCU, and felt "things that are happening in L.A. [where
Runaways is set] are not exactly going to be affecting what's happening in New Orleans [where
Cloak & Dagger is set.]" For
Runaways, Loeb added that the characters would not be concerned with the actions of others in the universe, instead focusing on their own issues. This allowed showrunners
Josh Schwartz and
Stephanie Savage to deal with concepts such as superheroics and fantasy without explaining them to the audience, since they are already well established in the MCU, while still focusing on their own characters, which they described as "liberating". Loeb continued that Marvel was excited to "explore the world of the hero and how it affects someone who is trying to figure out who they are as opposed to already knows who they are and now their whole life has to take a left. That's the journey we're going on" with
Cloak & Dagger,
New Warriors, and
Runaways.
New Warriors was no longer set to air on Freeform in November 2017, after the network did not have room in its schedule for the series and gave the project back to Marvel. Marvel was ultimately unable to find a new network for the series.
Cloak & Dagger showrunner
Joe Pokaski discussed a potential crossover between his series and
Runaways in August 2018, saying "hopefully there's some karma we can fulfill there" since Cloak and Dagger appear in the
Runaways comics. As part of a marketing partnership between Hulu and Freeform,
Runaways aired on Freeform following its Hulu release while
Cloak & Dagger was made available on Hulu after its Freeform broadcast. In August 2019, Marvel and Hulu announced that Cloak and Dagger would be appearing in an episode of
Runaways third season, with Loeb describing this as "the adventure everyone has been waiting for and we've only hinted at." Later that month, Loeb explained that Marvel categorized
Runaways and
Cloak & Dagger as its "YA", or "
young adult", franchise. He said Marvel had wanted to cross the two series over since their first seasons, and this was possible now since Hulu became
Disney controlled in May 2019 (Disney already owned Freeform). Loeb added that Marvel Television's push into the young adult genre was in response to Marvel Studios' films doing the same with
Spider-Man. Loeb hoped that the announced crossover episode would be "the first of many". However,
Cloak & Dagger and
Runaways had both been cancelled by the end of November 2019. The next month, Marvel Television was folded into Marvel Studios and stopped developing any new series. ==Series==