Will “Marvel’s Runaways” exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? That’s the question asked for almost every new Marvel property and the new Hulu series, which debuts on the streaming service November 21, is no different.
Executive producer Jeph Loeb told reporters at TCA on Thursday that the teenagers do exist in the same world as the Avengers, but there won’t be any in-series connections with them — at least for now.
“It all lives in the same world, how it’s connected and where it’s connected and what it’s going to be connected to remains to be seen,” he said. “What we’re trying to do now is tell a great story.”
“Runaways,” which follows a group of teenagers who find out their parents are supervillains, is Marvel’s first original series on Hulu, but the studio has already produced multiple shows for ABC, Freeform and Netflix. The ABC and Netflix shows have their own continuity that tangentially connects with the movies, whether it’s through passing dialogue or major events that affect stories, but the relationships is largely one-way. “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” for example, was affected by the events in “Civil War” and “Winter Soldier,” but its plots don’t affect the movies.
It’s looking like “Runaways” will follow this same pattern. Loeb said that the teenagers will, much like real life teenagers, exist within and pay attention to their own world and interests, and reflections of it. Captain America exists, but the Runaways themselves aren’t concerned with his daily musings or whereabouts.
“Since it’s all connected through social media and it’s all connected in its own way, would you be following Iron Man or would you be following someone your own age?” Loeb said, using social media as an example. “The fact that they’ve found each other and they’re going through this mystery together at the moment is what we’re concerned about, not what Captain America is doing.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, mostly, helps the whole franchise to jump into the superheroics and the fantasy without having to introduce the concept of superheroes to the audience, something the show’s two showrunners said is liberating. In that way, the “Runaways” is connected.
As for other connections, or if there’s anything we can expect in the future, it’s unclear. There’s a character that gets introduced later in the comics that, without spoiling, has a big connection to one of the major characters in the Marvel movieverse. Loeb wouldn’t comment on whether we’ll see this character — or whether there will be a second season — so it’s unclear if the Runaways will get closer to the Avengers.
“Stay tuned,” he said.