Pretty soon, there will be a Marvel universe version of every kind of content, and the next genre up for inclusion is the teen drama. Hulu has placed an order for an adaptation of Runaways, the Marvel Comics series featuring a rag-tag bunch of teenagers trying to be heroes in the face of the ultimate arch-nemeses – their parents.
Runways is relatively young by Marvel lore standards – the series was created by Brian K. Vaughan (of Saga fame, for indie comic fans) and Adrian Alphona in 2003, and has enjoyed a four volume run since then with the most recent concluding in 2015. Upon discovering that their parents are actually a group of super criminals, the teens band together, combining their inherent powers, along with tech lifted by their evil parentals to thwart their plans.
Basically, it’s teen rebellion writ large with the help of superheroic fantasy, all taking place in Marvel’s rich fictional world. At Hulu, the project will be helmed by creators very familiar with teen trials and troubles according to Deadline – Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who together created Gossip Girl, while Schwartz previously did The O.C. solo.
Executive producers on the project include Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory, which is great news because they helped create Jessica Jones and Daredevil for Netflix. But everyone involved in this has my spidey sense tingling a bit, if only because they’re all so terrific and the source material is so great that I’m tempted to say “how can this possibly go wrong” – which usually doesn’t end well.
Still, let’s give Marvel the benefit of the doubt; they haven’t really had a big miss on TV or in film in recent memory. Here’s hoping Runaways doesn’t break with tradition in that regard.