HBO’s popular crime drama, Task, is adding some major new actors to its cast for the upcoming second season.
According to Variety, Mahershala Ali, a two-time Oscar winner, will join the second season of Task in a significant role. He’ll play Eddie Barnes, an experienced and highly-regarded DEA agent working in Philadelphia, whose team gets caught up in the central case of the season. He’ll star alongside Mark Ruffalo, who plays FBI agent Tom Brandis. HBO hasn’t revealed many details about the case yet, but they’ve said that as Brandis leads a new task force, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine who they are actually investigating.
The first season of Task debuted last September to widespread acclaim. It centers on Brandis, who leads an unconventional team investigating a string of robberies targeting drug houses. These crimes escalated to two deaths and the possible kidnapping of a child. As Brandis delves deeper into the case, the series explores the complex motivations of the criminals and forces viewers to question what truly constitutes justice.
Adding Ali to the cast of Task is fantastic news for the show, but it’s important to remember that Season 1 already had a very strong cast. Alongside Mark Ruffalo, the season featured established actors like Tom Pelphrey and Martha Plimpton, as well as a talented supporting group including Raúl Castillo, Silvia Dionicio, Phoebe Fox, Fabien Frankel, Emilia Jones, Sam Keeley, Thuso Mbedu, Jamie McShane, and Alison Oliver. While the show’s clever writing and strong sense of location helped attract viewers, it was the actors’ performances that truly made the first season shine. Building on that high quality will require exceptional talent, and Ali’s arrival is a great start.
Season 2 of Task is currently being developed, not long after the first season premiered, but there’s no confirmed release date yet. Meanwhile, actor Ali, recently known for his role in Jurassic World Rebirth, has several projects on the way. He’ll lend his voice to Wildwood, a new stop-motion film from Laika, set to release on October 23rd. He’s also slated to appear in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse in 2027, and an upcoming action thriller called Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, directed by Bassam Tariq, who also wrote Mogul Mowgli.
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While fans wait for his new films, they can easily enjoy some of Mahershala Ali’s previous work on HBO Max. He received an Emmy nomination for his leading role in season three of True Detective, and won an Emmy for producing the documentary We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest. If the second season of Task is as good as the first, he could win even more awards soon.
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2026-03-24 16:21