The kids aren’t okay in Season 2 of Marvel’s Runaways

Leave it to the kids to clean up the nasty mess that their parents made in Season 1 of Marvel’s Runaways (2017-current, Seasons 2 to 3 are on Showmax).

A group of misfit kids found out that their parents belonged to a secret group called The Pride, who wanted to resurrect three mystical giants – The Gibborim – to rule the world once again.

Here’s a quick recap of who’s who in the Runaway zoo: Alex (centre – Rhenzy Feliz) is a genius who knows what’s going to happen before it takes place. Nico (far right – Lyrica Okano) dabbles in black magic with the magical Staff Of One that can cast any spell but only once. Karolina (second from right – Virginia Gardner) is an alien who can fly and shoot solar energy bursts from her hands, while Molly (second from left – Allegra Acosta) has superhuman strength and is invulnerable. Chase (far left – Gregg Sulkin) has X-ray goggles and can manipulate fire, and purple haired Gert (third from right – Ariela Barer) has a telepathic dinosaur named Old Lace.

“While defeating their parents and their evil plan in Season 1, the group are now on the run as their parents are hunting them down,” explains series creator Josh Schwartz. “This year is much more a cat-and-mouse game, with the two sides going to war.”

Fans won’t have to wait long to see what happens next as Season 2 picks up 24-hours after the events of Season 1…

Batcave

Josh adds, “It was the biggest set that Marvel Television has built. When Runaways comic co-creator Brian K Vaughan came to the set for the first time, he had tears in his eyes.”

“Everything about this season is bigger,” explains Josh. “We are now running with our kids. We are now into that part of the story and that part of the adventure. The focus shifts now to these kids trying to survive on the streets and they’re kids from rich areas — they are not really used to living on the streets of Los Angeles. There is a greater tension and momentum.”

The first thing the kids have to do is find a safe place. Chase discovers the perfect place: a mansion swallowed by an earthquake underneath the Hollywood Hills.

“It was originally built in the 1920s by a magician. It was lived in for many years, but perhaps sometime in the 60s or 70s there was an earthquake or mudslide that made it uninhabitable. We wanted it to be our equivalent of, like, the Batcave,” explains executive producer Stephanie Savage.

Josh adds, “It was the biggest set that Marvel Television has built. When Runaways comic co-creator Brian K Vaughan came to the set for the first time, he had tears in his eyes.”

Issues

“In the real world, young people are dealing with adult themes. The world that the adults are leaving young people, there’s a responsibility on young people to fix this world. It feels so broken in so many ways,” Josh explains about the issues the Runaways face this season.

“That is also a theme for our characters and for the show.”

This season, the kids will fully embrace their powers – full steam ahead – to fight off their parents, but not all the kids agree on taking them down. “They are our parents. How can they be such monsters? How can we do this to them?” asks Nico.

“We’re not them. We can fix the world they broke,” replies Karolina.

Season 2 won’t focus as much on the parents as the first, “But there is the ticking clock that requires them to find their kids before something catastrophic potentially could occur,” teases Josh.

With the kids exploring their powers, it’s dating couple Nico and Karolina who go beyond exploring. Nico practises with her magical staff, but it seems it’s feeding off the Dark Dimension featured in the Marvel movie Doctor Strange (2016).

Josh is tight-lipped of a possible connection, with his only answer being a “watch and see”. Karolina wants to get to know her dad better, but the only problem is that Daddy Dearest is Jonah (Julian McMahon), the leader of Pride.

“This season she has accepted the fact that he’s her father. She understands that she needs something from him. He’s the only person who can answer the questions about who she is and where she comes from,” says Virginia. “Although there is this alien blood relationship, she is also not sure about his true intentions. She’s still keeping her distance and ready to kick his ass if she has to.”

Does this mean there could be a possible mole in the group?

Bonding

As the kids bond and start to trust each other more, it’s Gert who has the coolest bond: with Old Lace.

“This dinosaur is like the therapy dog in Gert’s life, but then I think she evolves in Season 2 into a kind of more of a friend and companion and she gets her own story this season,” jokes Ariela. “Old Lace kind of solidifies her place as the seventh runaway, so now she’s more on equal footing with everyone else and she gets to be the hero of the moment.”

New team member

Fans have been spamming the producers to bring in new characters and it seems their wishes have been answered.

“There are some characters who appear in the Runaways comic books who are appearing in Season 2, which we are very excited about. But obviously we don’t want to spoil the fun,” teases Josh.

One character’s identity that has slipped out the top-secret vault to join the team is Topher (Jan Luis Castellanos) who also possesses unimaginable powers. Topher is a vampire street criminal in the comic books but it’s unclear whether he’ll retain these attributes in the show.

Will he even try to eat one of the kids as in the comics? “We’ll have to wait and see,” says Josh again.

Test of loyalties

At the end of Season 1, Victor (James Marsters) attacked his wife after she shot him.

“We cannot confirm nor can we deny that Victor is dead. We have shown through the show the ability of people to escape death. We’ve also shown that people really die,” Josh hints.

But if Victor is really dead, it will throw a spanner in Jonah’s plan. “Victor is incredibly important to Jonah’s plan and the plan of The Pride. Chase and Victor have started to bond and form an emotional connection, so if Victor’s fate is tied to The Pride, then that is something that’s going to test Chase’s loyalty to the Runaways.”