‘Marvel’s Inhumans’ Showrunner Reveals New Details and MCU Connections

Marvel’s Inhumans is getting an unprecedented launch this week, as it premieres in IMAX theaters before getting a more traditional premiere on ABC. In the weeks leading up ot the show’s premiere we’ve learned quite a bit more about Inhumans – and today, showrunner Scott Buck (who also oversaw Netflix’s Iron Fist season 1) has more to share.

Below you can find details that were revealed in Scott Buck’s interview with /Film. In that interview, Buck covers the following topics:

• What’s Different Between the IMAX and TV Premieres
• How prominent Lockjaw is in the Series
• What’s the difference between airing a Marvel show on broadcast vs. streaming.
• How Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has Influence Inhumans‘ story.

Check that out, below – and be sure to watch the trailer for Marvel’s Inhumans, above!

IMAX and TV Premieres Will Be Different

The Inhumans premiere episodes will come in two forms: 

1. The full, two, hour-long episodes that will premiere on TV.
2. A feature-length cut (about 90 mins) of the premiere episodes presented exclusively in IMAX format and shown in theaters. 

That’s a strange way to launch a show, no doubt, but it could also entice fans to watch both versions of the Inhumans premiere. That’s pretty much what Scott Buck is hoping for:

I sort of knew writing it what I was getting into, that there would be two episodes for ABC that I would then edit down to one episode for IMAX. There were storylines that I knew we could pull out of the IMAX version and put into the ABC version.

So what will you miss if you only watch Inhumans‘ IMAX premiere? Buck says:

“I don’t want to give that away. That’s something I can’t necessarily give away, but there’s an entire storyline that is not in the IMAX version. In episode two, all hell breaks loose.”

Lockjaw is a Star

The Inhumans Royal Family guard dog / teleportation system, Lockjaw, is a fan-favorite. He’s being brought to life for the TV series via CGI, and as Scott Buck reveals, we’ll be seeing quite a bit of him. 

In fact, according to Buck, Lockjaw will be in every single episode of Inhumans: “Lockjaw is in every episode. He’s an important part of the family. We’ve got to check in on him.”

And as for the level of visual effects needed to create the teleporting dog in every single ep? 

“It’s kind of fun. It’s weird shooting that when there’s either nothing there or a big gigantic blue styrofoam dog. When you finally see the scene cut together with the actual CGI animation, it suddenly becomes something very different and very exciting to see, the dog actually in the scenes.“

ABC vs. Netflix

Inhumans will be airing every week on ABC, adding a third Marvel broadcast series to the Marvel Cinematic Universe lineup, alongside Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter. However, Scott Buck had been done with Netflix’s Iron Fist for “about five minutes,” before Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb pitched him the show. “It was so interesting and so different from anything I had ever done with such a huge cast of really interesting characters that I just couldn’t possibly say no.”

However, how different is it going from the more mature version of the MCU featured on Netflix, to the material we see on ABC? According to Buck, Inhumans will be much more in the family-friendly vein than Iron Fist, but that doesn’t mean it will be childish:

“…we’re doing an ABC show and also the fact that it’s about a family. Because also these characters are so fantastical in a way, it makes it more like a comic book than I’d say Iron Fist is… My kids are seven years old and I will watch it with them, but I will want to talk them through it because there are some adult moments and there are things that they won’t understand, but I think they will still enjoy it. We start out with our royal couple in bed so yes, there’s adult moments.”

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Influence

Of course, Marvel’s Inhumans won’t be the first time that we see The Inhumans culture in the MCU: the superhuman characters were first introduced in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

For those who never watched: In previous seasons of AoS, it was revealed that the character of Skye/Quake was an inhuman; a colony of Inhumans was living in secret on Earth; and the “Terrigenesis” process of unlocking Inhuman potential in normal humans was unleashed across the globe. 

With that groundwork already laid down, some fans are wondering how Marvel’s Inhumans storyline will sync or connect to the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. mythos. We’ll, according to Buck: 

“We all live in the same universe so we had to be aware of what they did in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but we’re a completely different show that stands alone. It’s not like our characters cross paths in any way at this point but our characters are aware of potentially what’s happening in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

In caste your wondering, Buck also confirms that the Royal Family will be aware of the very public Inhuman hero/sometimes outlaw, Quake.

Marvel’s Inhumans is in IMAX theaters now – it premieres on ABC on September 29th.