Attention all comic books fans: it happened. It finally happened! Marvel TV boss, Jeph Loeb, has finally said that all the Marvel properties take place in the same universe. It’s official! The confirmation of what we’ve all wondered about for years came during the Marvel’s Runaways panel at the 2017 Summer TV Press Tour on Thursday afternoon, when a journalist asked Loeb how the new Hulu series will connect to other Marvel properties.
“You’re just trying to get me in trouble, so I’ll say hashtag it’s all connected and we have to explain that later on,” Loeb said. “Look, it all lives in the same world. How it’s connected, and where it’s connected and what it’s connected to remains to be seen.”
So there you go. Even if there aren’t visible connections or crossovers to other Marvel TV shows or movies, they’re all taking place in a universe with connective tissue of a sort (thanks, Doctor Strange)!
But that’s not all we learned during the Runaways panel! Here are five other things we learned about Hulu’s comic book series:
1. This adaptation is truly for fans of the comic book
Creator Brian K. Vaughan had a major hand in taking his comic book story from the page to the screen. That means the TV show will be very true to the original source material, and it also allows the TV show to expand on what comic book fans already know and expect from the story. Think of this as Runaways 2.0, where the original author gets to go back and redo some things he wishes could have happened the first time around. “We tried to respect the original material,” Loeb promised.
2. This is Marvel-meets-The-O.C.
Teen drama icons Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are taking their talents to the comic book genre. In fact, Loeb revealed that Runaways has always been in the works for Marvel as a TV show, and they always referred to it as “The O.C. in the Marvel universe.” Since they already had a general meeting set up with Schwartz and Savage, the actual minds behind The O.C., Loeb realized it was fate and put Runaways in their hands. “We didn’t view it as a superhero show,” Schwartz said. “We really viewed it as a coming of age drama, as a family drama. We got to tell that story inside of a Marvel show.”
3. There are no black-and-white villains
In the comics, the parents of the Runaways teens form an evil organization named Pride. They’re the real villains of the story, and the teens end up having to defeat their own parents. But according to Schwartz, “there are no true villains on the show.” They ended up expanding on the parents’ backstory and humanized them more than they are in the comics. In fact, while the pilot episode tells the story of the teenagers finding out their parents are evil, the second episode goes back and tells that same story, but this time, from the parents’ point of view. Viewers won’t see the parents as villains that need to be defeated. It really is like The O.C., where the parents are flawed but doing what they think is right!
4. Will Stan Lee make a cameo on the show like he does in all the Marvel movies?
“Wait and see,” Loeb teased with a smile.
5. What about Old Lace?!
Comic book fans know that there’s an … well, larger-than-life character in Runaways. As in a telepathic dinosaur. Yeah. Unfortunately, the cast and showrunners were mum on whether or not Old Lace will be on the show. But: “you won’t be disappointed,” Ariela Barer, who plays Gert, told Nerdist.
Are you as excited as I am to see Marvel’s Runaways? Tweet me at @SydneyBucksbaum and let’s discuss!
Images + GIFs: Marvel
Marvel’s Runaways premieres November 21 on Hulu.
