{"id":400636,"date":"2026-03-24T02:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T02:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/400636\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T02:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T02:26:09","slug":"mahershala-ali-joins-season-2-of-task-at-hbo-with-mark-ruffalo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/400636\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahershala Ali Joins Season 2 Of ‘Task’ At HBO With Mark Ruffalo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHBO<\/a>\u2018s critically acclaimed crime drama Task<\/a> isn\u2019t pulling any punches with the casting of Mark Ruffalo<\/a>\u2018s counterpart in the second season as sources tell Deadline Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali<\/a> is set to join the show. Ali will play Eddie Barnes, a seasoned and\u00a0well-respected\u00a0DEA agent in Philadelphia whose team comes into conflict with Tom\u2019s unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason two follows Ruffalo\u2019s return as Agent Tom Brandis, takes the helm of a new task force, but the deeper the operation runs, the harder it is to tell\u00a0who\u2019s\u00a0the target.\u00a0Ingelsby is back as exec producer, writer and showrunner. Joining him as exec producers are Paul Lee and Mark Roybal for\u00a0wiip as well as Jeremiah Zagar, Ruffalo, and Ron Schmidt. Nicole Jordan-Webber and Karen Wacker will join as co-exec producers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough HBO will continue to say the show was never a limited series and a second season was on the table, sources close to the project say the initial plan was for one season similar to Ingelsby\u2019s other HBO crime drama Mare of Eastown. Once production had concluded on the first season, Ingelsby and Ruffalo felt there was still more to explore with his character and began plotting a second season arc. Once the first season concluded to big numbers and incredible reviews, Ingelsby was well on his way to writing the next season and a second season renewal quickly followed with Ruffalo returning to star.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe one thing that was missing SPOILER ALERT <\/strong>is that HBO and Ingelsby knew they would have to replace Ruffalo\u2019s co-star Tom Pelphrey\u2019s character, who is killed at the end of season 1. Pelphrey\u2019s performance was as good as any on television in \u201925 and execs and producers knew they would have to aim high for season two and decided to go to a familiar face that had helped relaunched another popular crime drama years ago.<\/p>\n

\n\tAli, who starred in the third season of HBO\u2019s True Detective, was at the top of the list and after reading that first script and meeting with Ingelsby was on board to join Ruffalo in the upcoming season. The one difference this go around is a rival DEA agent on the same side of the law instead of Pelphrey\u2019s criminal fighting for survival.<\/p>\n

\n\tAli is set to have a busy year ahead of him on the film side with the highly anticipated Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother bowing later this year. Written and directed by Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli), the dramatic thriller will be released this fall by MGM Studios and Amazon.<\/p>\n

\n\tAli recently starred in Universal\u2019s highest grossing film of 2025, Jurassic World: Rebirth alongside Scarlett Johanson. In 2023, Ali starred alongside Julia Roberts in Netflix\u2019 critically acclaimed and highly successful film Leave the World Behind which premiered to over 121 million views in its first month on the platform.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe is repped by Cognition, CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HBO\u2018s critically acclaimed crime drama Task isn\u2019t pulling any punches with the casting of Mark Ruffalo\u2018s counterpart in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,9540,19,17,74972,9921,1800],"class_list":["post-400636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mahershala-ali","tag-mark-ruffalo","tag-task"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116281788612205484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}