In the case of some adaptations, a creator forfeits their right to be involved in the process of bringing their story to life and becomes merely a witness to the final product. In the case of author Brian K. Vaughan seeing his Runaways comic come to life, the experience was emotionally rewarding.
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“I cannot begin to describe it,” Vaughan told The Hollywood Reporter about the process. “When I helped create the book, I was much closer in age to these actors playing the Runaways. Now, I’m much closer in age to their parents. It’s surreal to meet my fictional children when I’ve brought my actual children to the set, to meet my fictional kids. It couldn’t have been cooler. They’re all so nice. It feels like they’re ripped right out of the pages of the book. It’s fantastic.”
Not only was the author happy with Hulu‘s cast selection for Marvel’s Runaways, but Vaughan was also offered the opportunity to take an active involvement in developing the show. Despite the opportunity, Vaughan took a backseat to the minds directly involved with adapting the show.
“I have to say, they have been so generous — they give me a lot of credit — but in reality, this is very much [co-creators] Josh [Schwartz] and Stephanie’s [Savage] show,” Vaughan confessed. “They have assembled an incredible group of writers that I have been lucky enough to sit in with. I have a consultant title. They certainly consulted with me at every stage.”
Even given this modicum of involvement in the production, Vaughan revealed that the show was in hands that were more than capable.
“The reality is, they didn’t really need my help all that much. It was a lot of asking questions about, ‘How the hell do we do this? How do you pronounce this character’s name? What do you think about us changing this?’” Vaughan pointed out. “I feel my job was to give them the cloud cover, the freedom I guess, to make it their own. If this is going to succeed in 2017 as a television show, you can’t treat the 2003 comic book as storyboards to be adapted exactly. It needs to evolve. It needs to change. I was hopeful that they would make it their own, and they very much have.”
Marvel’s Runaways premieres this Tuesday, November 21 on Hulu. Check out our review of the first four episodes here.
[H/T The Hollywood Reporter]
