Marvel is expanding their reach to Hulu, with its Runaways series having now been officially ordered to series. This is the latest effort by Marvel to expand their reach beyond the big screen and develop the television side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the process. ABC currently has Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. running and will add Inhumans to the mix this fall, while Freeform has lined up Cloak & Dagger and New Warriors for release over the next 1-2 years. Netflix continues to be Marvel TV’s go-to destination for streaming content, but now Hulu is staking their own claim in the larger MCU.
The Runaways series had previously only filmed its pilot episode, in order to garner network interest in the series and prove to Hulu (as well as its advertisers) that it is something worth investing in. The plan worked out, with Runaways now on its way to becoming a full-blown series.
Hulu (via Deadline) made the announcement this morning as part of their Upfronts presentation. There is no word yet on when Runaways will begin streaming, but 2018 has been the projected time for a while now. With a full season now ordered by the streaming service, production can begin again on the remaining Runaways season 1 episodes.
This was the next necessary step for the series to take after filming the Runaways pilot episode, earlier this year. Even though it may not be terribly surprising to see this happen, it does show a certain level of interest and confidence from Hulu in the show’s potential, thus far. Networks make pilots all the time for hopeful series that never go anywhere, but thanks to this news Runaways will not fall into that category.
Runaways will feature some of the youngest stars in the MCU – following a similar path to Cloak & Dagger and New Warriors – as the plot follows a group of kids who become heroes after they discover their parents are as evil as can be. The series will feature a typical lineup of characters as Gregg Sulkin (Chase Stein), Virginia Gardner (Karolina Dean), Rhenzy Feliz (Alex Wilder), Ariela Barer (Gert Yorkes), Lyrica Okano (Nico Minoru), and Allegra Acosta (Molly Hernandez) are set to star.
There is no word on when filming will pick up again to finish Runaway‘s first season or how many episodes will make up said season. Somewhere between 8 and 13 episodes seems likely, as it would be surprising for Hulu to order a 22 episode freshman season (something that is not typical for streaming services). Either way, more details will be arriving sooner than later now, but in the meantime fans can tide themselves over with the first Runaways teaser.
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Runaways is expected to premiere on Hulu sometime in 2018.
