Marvel Revives Runaways Series With Rainbow Rowell

Marvel’s Runaways is one of the latest Marvel properties making its way to live action. But while […]

September 5, 2017, 4:45pm

Marvel’s Runaways is one of the latest Marvel properties making its way to live action. But while the television series about the ensemble is set to premiere on Hulu in the coming months, many are still left scratching their heads about the titular group.

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Marvel Comics appears to be changing that very soon, thanks to a new comic series with some pretty awesome names attached.

Young adult author Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park, Fangirl) will be writing the new Runaways series, while Kris Anka (Uncanny X-Men, Star-Lord) will be the series’ artist. Fans had hoped for a revival of the series for quite some time, only to be teased with character posters released by Marvel earlier this week.

“This is my favorite Marvel book.” Rowell explained to Entertainment Weekly. “When [editor Nick Lowe] first reached out to me a few years ago about maybe working for Marvel, it was the first thing I asked him about. The characters and original story by Brian K. Vaughan are just so great and so beautifully built. I was really excited because I always felt like there were more Runaway stories and that book should just have kept going.”

Those keeping track of the Marvel Comics universe will remember that many of the series’ characters are currently scattered across various titles. According to Rowell, this sort of ‘getting the band back together’ will play a huge part in the Runaways‘ first arc.

“It’s kind of funny calling them the Runaways because it’s not like they’re the Avengers or the X-Men. They were not formed with a mission and a purpose. They’re just kids who ended up in the same boat. At the beginning of this series they are scattered to the four winds and half of them are dead. One of the challenges now is who are they when they’re apart? They got thrown together, but now they’ve been pulled apart. They’re trying to figure out who they really are without each other… This arc is very much about them choosing to be together.”

For those who are already fans of the series, Rowell says that she will do everything she can to honor the past installments.

“It’s kind of like The Force Awakens,” explains Rowell. “When you go to see a Star Wars movie, you’re not gonna want them to totally shift everything up and give you a whole new universe. You want the Star Wars universe you love and then great stories inside of it. That’s how I feel about Runaways. I don’t need to do anything to them other than telling great stories with them.”

Rowell and Anka’s revival of Runaways is set to debut in September.

Runaways follows a group of six teenagers in the Marvel universe – Nico Minoru, Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes, Chase Stein, Alex Wilder, and Gertrude Yorkes – who discover that their parents are secretly members of a supervillain cabal called The Pride. After deciding they’re no longer safe in their own homes, the kids go on the run. In the midst of hiding from their elders, the teens learn about themselves and become a family of their own.

“Marvel’s Runaways” is executive produced by series showrunners/writers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (“THE O.C.,” “GOSSIP GIRL”) along with Marvel’s Head of Television, Jeph Loeb (“Marvel’s Luke Cage,” “Marvel’s Iron Fist”) and Jim Chory (“Marvel’s Daredevil,” “Marvel’s Jessica Jones.”) Fake Empire’s Lis Rowinski will produce as well. Marvel’s Runaways is a co-production with ABC Signature Studios.

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