Hulu has dropped the first teaser trailer for season two of Marvel’s Runaways, or as I like to think of it, The O.C. with super powers. And that’s not a dig: as someone with a love of teen soaps, Runaways is a highly entertaining marriage of teen melodrama and superhero genres, making it a welcome respite from the doom and gloom of Marvel’s Netflix series (which are mostly excellent but not exactly uplifting).
Series creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage were the creative forces behind The O.C. and Gossip Girl, and that experience comes through in the show’s execution.
Season one ended with the titular Runaways finally confronting their supervillain parents, and the teaser gives us a glimpse of their new cave hideout in Griffith Park, which comic book fans know as The Hostel. Nico says, “They are our parents. How can they be such monsters?” and Karolina replies, “We’re not them. We can fix the world that they broke.” That sentiment not only embodies the theme of the series, but is increasingly relevant as teens across the country are becoming more politically active and socially conscious.
The trailer also shows the Runaways developing their own powers, with Nico saying, “We all need to do better, train harder. We’re not superheroes, okay? We aren’t good at this.” The “superheroes suck at superhero-ing” trope is always entertaining, and it will be exciting to see how the team develops their respective powers. Runaways remains one of Marvel’s most diverse shows and is the first to give us a queer superhero couple in Nico Minoru and Karolina Dean. The trailer gives us a glimpse at the two kissing (while Karolina is in her sparkly rainbow form), which is sure to delight Deanoru shippers everywhere.
Making Deanoru a couple deviates from the original storyline in the comic books, but it’s a welcome change that plays off of the characters’ natural chemistry. We’re excited to see how the relationship develops as the teens are now living together in the Hostel. Another smart choice the series made was taking the time to flesh out the parents. While some viewers complained that season one of Runaways moved too slow by not having the gang actually run away until the finale, it only serves to build the world and the relationships that the teens have with their parents. Having an entire season to explore the family dynamics of the Runaways (rather than making the parents one-note villains) makes for better drama and character development.
Season two of Runaways premieres on Hulu on December 21st.
(via Deadline, image: Hulu)
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