‘Task’ casts Mahershala Ali as Mark Ruffalo’s new rival for season two
HBO needed a new actor to face Ruffalo and take up the rival role. Ali's name was 'on top of the list.'
Editor’s note: This story contains spoilers for the show ‘Task.’
The second season of Task has its new costar: Mahershala Ali.
The Oscar-winning actor will play the new rival to star Mark Ruffalo, who will reprise his role as the compassionate-but-determined FBI agent Tom Brandis, according to Deadline. Ali’s character is reportedly a veteran Philadelphia DEA agent named Eddie Barnes, whose efforts collide with Brandis’ latest task force.
The first season of Task, from Mare of Easttown creator and Berwyn resident Brad Ingelsby, focused on Brandis’ team investigating a string of robberies at drug houses in Delaware and Montgomery Counties. Brandis spent the season chasing trash collector-turned-thief Robbie Prendergrast, played by Tom Pelphrey, and ultimately discovered a corrupt cop in his unit.
Soon after production wrapped, Ingelsby and Ruffalo “felt there was still more to explore with his character and began plotting a second season arc,” Deadline reported. Without Pelphrey as counterpart — Prendergrast is just one of the casualties from a dramatic shoot out in the deep Pennsylvania woods — HBO needed a new actor to face Ruffalo and take up the rival role.
After winning Oscars for best supporting actor in both Moonlight and Green Book — making history as he became the first Muslim actor to ever receive an Academy Award — Ali went on to star in the third season of HBO’s crime series True Detective in 2019. Most recently, he also starred in Jurassic World: Rebirth.
Ali was “at the top of the list” for candidates to play alongside Ruffalo in the second season of Task, according to Deadline.
Task was filmed in and around Philadelphia and Pennsylvania with local crews and actors, bringing $230 million to the region. The second season will also return to film locally. Last November, the Pennsylvania Film Office announced Task would receive a $49.8 million tax credit, the largest amount the state has ever given to a single production, with the expectation that the show will bring some 3,700 jobs to the state along with an estimated investment of $194.1 million to Pennsylvania’s economy.
Showrunner Ingelsby is again serving as executive producer with Ruffalo, among others. South Philly-raised director Jeremiah Zagar, son of the late mosaicist Isaiah Zagar, will also return as an executive producer.