In Altered Carbon season 2, the role of Takeshi Kovacs was recast, with Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and Winter Soldier) replacing Joel Kinnaman (Suicide Squad), who played the character in season 1. Based on the 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon portrays a world 300 years into the future where people's memories and consciousness can be stored in a disk-shaped device called a "cortical stack". When people die, their stacks can be transferred into another body, or "sleeve", which stores their consciousness. Essentially, people who are wealthy enough to transfer their stack to another sleeve, also known as "re-sleeving", can achieve a sense of immortality.
In Altered Carbon season 1, the stack of Kovacs (Kinnaman), the last surviving member of the Envoys who were destroyed 250 years prior, is pulled out of prison by Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy) and put into the sleeve of Elias Ryker. Kovacs is tasked with solving Bancroft's own murder and, if completed, Kovacs gets a new life. After season 1, fans were surprised when Mackie was cast as Kovacs and would replace the departing Kinnaman. However, switching the actors makes sense considering how season 1 ended.
In the Altered Carbon season 1 finale, Kovacs returned the sleeve to its original owner, Ryker, in order to reunite Ryker with his lover, Detective Kristin Ortega (Martha Higareda). Then, Kovacs' stack is transferred to another sleeve since he's still trying to find Quellcrist Falconer (Renée Elise Goldsberry). Because Kovacs is re-sleeved, another actor needs to portray Kovacs in this new sleeve, which is why Mackie will be the lead in Altered Carbon season 2. It is possible that Kinnaman could return to the series, but it would be as Ryker, not Kovacs.
This is not the first time that Kovacs is portrayed in another sleeve. In fact, Kinnaman wasn't the only actor to play Kovacs in season 1. During flashbacks and hallucinations, Kovacs was played by two different actors. Byron Mann played the original Kovacs, who appears at the beginning of the series when Kovacs was on the run after the destruction of the Envoys. While the Envoys were still alive, Will Yun Lee portrayed Stronghold Kovacs, the sleeve that Takeshi used for most of his life.
In Altered Carbon season 2, Mackie is not the only new face joining the series. Simone Missick, Dina Shihabi, Torben Liebrecht, James Tomio Saito, and Lela Loren will all have significant roles in the upcoming season. Along with Goldsberry, Chris Conner also returns from season 1 as Edgar Poe, an A.I. who befriends Kovacs. Despite the casting change, Altered Carbon season 2 will still focus on Kovacs' search for his lost love, Quellcrist Falconer.