Runaways – Roundtable

By starrymag | December 16, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

Jeph Loeb (Marvel Executive Producer)

 

Q) Are you guys going to be bringing any guest stars or crossovers from any other shows? Cloak & Dagger has kids about the same age.

 

A) You’re trying to get me in trouble by saying everything is all connected. I’ll say what I always say which is: stay tuned.

 

Q) Where do you think this show fits into the Marvel brand?

 

A) It does a number of things and it does them quite well. I think that’s a testament to an amazing cast and our showrunners, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who have such a keen grip on who these characters are and where they’re going. We also have the ace hidden up our sleeve, which is that Brian K. Vaughan who created this in the first place is overseeing it and looks at it and would tell us, “You’ve gone horribly wrong–you’re going to hit the guardrail!” Thankfully, he’s been incredibly supportive.

 

Basically, when you look at much of the Marvel universe which is real and grounded and has all those things you love like great drama and great comedy and things that other superhero shows may or may not have, but at the end of the day what really makes this show so unique is that it’s about kids. When I stop and think about whatever is happening in Matt Murdock’s life, he has a place to live and can theoretically go back and do his job. Jessica Jones’ is not the best thing in the world, but she knows where she’s sleeping. When you look at the world of the runaways now that they’ve run away, those real, basic, simple questions: what are we going to do tomorrow? Are we ever going to go home? Are we ever going to go back to school? If I fall in love, does that turn into something that’s real? Or is it just because this is who we are?

 

There’s a lovely moment in the first few episodes where they literally sit down and go, “Are we the only people we’re going to get to know? Because they are fugitives, and they are runaways, and they are living on the street. It’s not this romantic notion. I think particularly kids have that moment of, “I’ll just run away and my parents will never tell me what to do. I can eat whatever I want and sleep whenever I want.” That’s great for days one, two and maybe three, but when you start getting into, “How do I make money? What is going to happen to me five years from now?”

 

What we particularly love about the world we’re living in right now is that kids are dealing with these problems in a very real way. We want to make sure the world is being treated in that very real way. Whether it’s the kids in Parkland that are coming out and being very active in what’s happening politically or kids who are in your neighborhood that have decided to help out in the world in any way they can, it’s really timely. And we have a dinosaur.

 

Q) Thanks to the success of the show, you can create it without too much fear of cancellation.

 

A) Wow, I like that. You should come work at Marvel. [laughs]

 

Q) Does that help you guys think about how long you want the show to run and how many seasons you want?

 

A) There’s always a plan, but the best we can describe it is that every show is a road trip. You leave New York and you know you’re going to Los Angeles. You’re pretty sure you’re going to stop in Chicago, Nashville, and the Grand Canyon. What you didn’t know is that outside of Pittsburgh, your car blew up. Are we taking the bus? Are we buying a new car? What’s going to happen? Those are the adventures that we go on every single one of our shows.

 

Josh and Stephanie have had a lot of success in The OC, Gossip Girl and Chuck. Those are network shows that have gone over one hundred episodes. That’s a very different world and a very hard world to be able to succeed. That’s thanks to their talent and storytelling. Is there a plan? Yes. But does that plan change when this piece of casting works out more interestingly than we thought or there’s more to this storyline we can mind and see where it goes? Yes.

 

I’ll give you an example. We always knew the show was going to have a dinosaur. We had the underlying property, and we were not going to be the show that went, “Yeah, we can’t do a dinosaur.” What we didn’t know was whether or not we could do it well. And if we couldn’t do it well, what’s the point in doing it? Somehow with luck, perseverance and an incredibly talented special effects house we’ve been able to create something that, as you said, you loved. That creature has taken on a personality of its own. Now we figure what we can do with that and how much we can do with that because we understand it. That’s a really oversimplified way of saying: yeah, we know where it’s going and hopefully we get the chance to do that.

 

Q) This is your first Marvel show on Hulu. You’re had shows on Netflix and ABC. What have you learned from those past shows to make this first season successful and continuing into further seasons?

 

A) Nothing. I’m being half serious. Every network is its own beast–what their needs are, how much they want to be involved, how little they want to be involved, how they promote the show, how important they feel the show is, all of those things. On the other hand, it’s helped by the fact we have a big red block called Marvel and knowing that people are probably going to come and see what it is helps them enormously. It’s really hard, particularly now, to come up with a show that’s, “A cop and a dog are going to solve crimes this Thursday night” and to get people to go, “Sure. I’ll watch that.” Marvel you go, “I like Marvel. I want to see what it’s going to be.” Don’t get me wrong, they’re just as quick to go, “Yeah, this isn’t what I want to go see.” We have to make sure that what we’re doing is true to the spirit of the show.

 

I can tell you that our relationship with Hulu is extraordinary. They get what it is that we want to do and are incredibly supportive. Not just in terms of when we tell them what the story is going to be or when we turn in the material or turn in an episode, all of that’s great, but it’s days like today. It’s making sure the press gets to be in these extraordinary sets. That’s a gift from Hulu. That’s the kind of thing where they go, “Let’s do this. Let’s make this a little different.” Whether it’s how they market the show or makes sure our cast gets to meet people, when you get involved with a network, it’s like being in a relationship. You’re hoping it’s going to be great. Hopefully, you learned something from your other relationships. This is just brand-new.

 

Q) Season One did such a great job exploring questions of identity and who you are, can you talk about how you continue that in season two? Other issues you get to explore you didn’t get to in season one?

 

A) One of the things is, “Who am I now that I’m no longer under the roof of my parents? And how am I realistically going to resolve this situation?” It’s gotta get resolved in one way or another, whether that’s continuing to run away or take the power back and try to drive not just the story of the story but the emotion of the story. It is continually trying to figure out who are we and what is our future? I don’t think we really dealt with that as much in the first season. And lastly, how does this get resolved? How do we figure out how to get our parents off our backs, make our parents pay for what they did, or–a surprising resolve–how do we get back in love? And then you have an ongoing problem which is that you have a Big Bad in Jonah who’s just moving them all around the chess board and trying to figure out who’s going to do what for who. And by the way, we have a dinosaur. All of those things are what’s keeping the show alive, and I think that’s the part that’s exciting.

 

Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz (Co-Creators)

 

Q) What are you going to bring in from the comic books in Season Two?

 

Stephanie: There will be some new characters from the comic that did not appear in season one.

 

Josh: True.

 

Stephanie: They are very exciting, iconic, canonic characters.

 

Josh: Iconic and canonic. Make sure you got that.

 

Q) How do you feel about the state of representation in superheroes?

 

Josh: I think it’s evolving overall in the larger superhero spectrum which is wonderful. I think this show also tells stories of the kind of superheroes you haven’t seen before. Obviously, there’s the Karolina/Nico relationship at the center of the show which is a cornerstone. You have Molly Hernandez (Allegra Acosta) which is a pretty exciting, unique character in the Marvel universe, which I know Allegra feels very strongly about and has spoken about. Hopefully, this show feels like it has a good level or representation. That’s something that’s happening across the board.

 

Stephanie: The additional, new characters that are joining us this year are in a similar place.

 

Josh: The diversity can only continue.

 

Q) Is there a certain episode or storyline that has emerged as your favorite this season?

 

Josh: I think we love all of our characters and storylines. I think having the characters being on the run and having them become runaways in their underground mansion in Griffith Park, being able to tell that part of the story overall has been really exciting. How that shakes out on the kids’ side, on the parents’ side has been a joy for us to tell this year.

 

Stephanie: Not just telling the superhero story but the outsider story of these kids who are orphans now living together trying to figure out how to get by every day was exciting.

 

Josh: Taking these kids out of the comfort of living with their parents and Brentwood and having to live on the streets. And, obviously, who sleeps in what room and with whom and those classic bunking together stories and how that shakes on the personal side.

 

Q) What can you tease about Karolina’s parentage and her relationship to Jonah and what she’ll discover in regards to him this year?

 

Josh: She’s going to discover a lot. That’s one of the big storylines. We lean into it very early on in the story and it’s going to change Karolina’s (Virginia Gardner) understanding of herself and her place in the world and maybe her place in a different world, as well.

 

Q) It’s a season of discovery, so to speak.

 

Josh: Yeah, I think that’s something all our characters are dealing with. All the characters are going through their idea of what their identity is and who their identities are as superheroes.

 

Q) I’m curious about Amy and who her contact is at the center and whether they will be working with the kids.

 

Josh: We sort of answered that at the end of last season and it was Lexi. The Amy (Amanda Suk) story will continue to resonate this season. We sort of wrapped up the whodunit part of that story, but the emotional impact will continue to play out.

 

Stephanie: It drives one of the bigger stories for one of our characters.

 

Q) Can you speak a little bit on the decision to start the season twenty-four hours after Season One? Did you ever consider doing a time jump?

 

Josh: The idea of kids being on the run felt like such a big, seismic shift for them that we didn’t want to skip past that. We wanted to see them from the morning after they wake up from sleeping on the streets and see how they find the hostel and learn to live on the streets. Those were things we didn’t want to play past because it was going to be really fun to explore that and see how that impacted them.

 

Stephanie: We felt like we wanted to be with them when they found this place and found the hostel. There was some talk of picking up with them later and then flashing back but then we decided to just stick with the timeline that was already really tight anyway.

 

Josh: Exactly. How do they learn to eat or survive without electricity? How will teenagers survive with phones that don’t work because they live in an underground with no WiFi service? These are the hard questions we’re trying to answer. [laughs]

 

Q) They’re so lucky it’s a mansion and not, like, a trailer.

 

Josh: I know–a mansion with closets that provide them with wardrobe all season and the perfect thing to wear at every occasion. There’s an indication that other people have squatted in the hostel in the past, so there’s like a throwback that it was occupied by a Hollywood magician in the 30’s, but clearly some punks lived here at some point. There are definitely layers and that informs wardrobe. Magical closets.

 

Stephanie: Clothes for everybody.

 

Q) I was really excited to see Alex explore his identity and another side of his culture in Los Angeles.

 

Stephanie: That was a storyline that was very much seeded in Season One with the Darius (DeVaughn Nixon) backstory and how Geoffrey (Ryan Sands) and Catherine (Angel Parker) have sort of taken him out of that background and pulled it off. Alex sort of stepping over that wall and going into that world, he discovers that it’s something very different from what parents described. He gets a lot of things that he wasn’t getting in Brentwood with his parents in a way that’s really fun for his character and sort of tells a bigger Los Angeles story and gets to the themes we’re trying to get to.

 

Q) We’re also going to get into Gert’s mental illness and what she’s like now that she no longer has access to her meds. Can you preview that a little bit?

 

Josh: That was something Ariela [Barer] was also excited to explore and lean into and had thoughts about. This is a character that has to deal with not only being on medication and dealing with not being able to get access to that medication anymore, but also when you’re that person psychically linked to a dinosaur where, if your brain is going haywire, that means the dinosaur could be going haywire. The stakes for that storyline become magnified.

 

Q) I’ve read that Season Two has a faster pace than Season One. Can you talk about how that impacted the writing process and impacted the show as a whole?

 

Josh: A lot happened last year, but there was always the idea that after they went on the run the show would be on the run with them and the pace of the storytelling was going to increase. That’s something that was reflected in Brian’s comic and something we wanted the show to reflect as well. It comes naturally after making the first season of the show and getting all kinds of great feedback and figuring out how to really tinker and tailor for season two. The pace is pretty relentless.

 

Stephanie: Season One was kind of structured like a murder mystery where they had to figure out what happened to Destiny (Nicole Wolf) and what their parents were up to. There was a lot of hiding in the shadow trying to observe things. This is more of an all-out war. There’s cat and mouse, combat–it’s going to war.

 

Josh: Going to war with your parents–what every kid dreams about.