Runaways producer Josh Schwartz is teasing that Victor Mancha may appear on the show one day. Marvel TV is growing its reach and expanding to a few new territories. They’ve found plenty of success on ABC with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continuing on, but have also seen Agent Carter cancelled too soon, and premiered Inhumans to disappointing results. Netflix has been the company’s home on the streaming side, but Hulu is about to break into the Marvel game in just a few weeks with the debut of Runaways.
The teen-centric series is taking obvious cues from the original Brian K. Vaughn run of Runaways comic books (which began in 2003), but that is only the beginning of the title characters’ journeys. Their comic counterparts have gone on to have multiple runs over the years since they were first introduced, giving the Runaways TV show creative team plenty of source material to adapt in the future.
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Screen Rant spoke to producer Josh Schwartz about the future of Runaways and asked him about bringing in other elements from more recent comic book stories; specifically, the introduction of Victor Mancha. Schwartz wouldn’t confirm either way what future (if any) Mancha has with Runaways, only teasing that their focus for the time being is on adapting the original first volume of the comics:
I will say in that regard is that it was really our goal with this to open up that first volume, the first 18 issues that everyone fell in love with open that up and dig into that story and live in that world for as long as possible. So that’s really the world we will be living in for the foreseeable future.
Vaughn’s original 18 issue run is not a lengthy story, so it unclear just how long the show will stretch out this story. The series is already doing things slightly different – with the second episode retelling the events of the pilot, but from the perspective of the Runaways’ parents. That is sure to be just the beginning of the differences between the live-action adaptation and the source material. The longer the series’ sticks with Vaughn’s initial run, however, the longer it should be before Mancha is introduced.
Mancha was introduced in Runaways #1 from Vaughn’s 2005-2008 run. Unlike many of the main characters on the Runaways TV show, Mancha’s backstory is heavily tied into elements of Marvel Comics lore that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has already introduced. He is an android that was created by Ultron, as part of a storyline that saw the evil A.I. cross paths with the young superhero team. (The Runaways even come to Victor’s aid, when it is discovered that he is on a path to becoming a villain, down the line.) It is reasonable to assume Mancha’s origin will be altered if he ever does become part of Runaways the TV show, since his comic book backstory doesn’t fit with the already-established MCU lore.
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Runaways premieres November 21 on Hulu.
