Marvel’s Runaways

Season 1 Saturdays M-Net City (*115) 19:00 Repeats Mondays M-Net City 14:10 Sci-fi

Every teen thinks that their parents are evil – but on Marvel’s Runaways (2017current), the old folk really are, reveals executive producer Josh Schwartz. “The difference is that our teens aren’t being unreasonably grounded. They witness their parents (known as The Pride) sacrificing a high school student to resurrect three mystical giants to rule the world once again.”

The Runaway team of friends literally have the power to save the world even though they don’t know it just yet. Alex (Rhenzy Feliz) for example is a genius, while Nico (Lyrica Okano) is a master of black magic and wields the powerful Staff Of One wand. Karolina ( Virginia Gardner) is a flying alien who shoots energy bursts from her hands, Molly (Allegra Acosta) is invulnerable and has super-human strength, and Chase (Gregg Sulkin) manipulates fire and has X-Ray vision thanks to his tech toys. The coolest of them all is also the nerdiest – purple-haired Gert (Ariela Barer), who has a telapathic dinosaur named Old Lace. “She is so cool and becomes their mascot,” says Ariela. While she is mostly CGI, the set designers built a full-size Lace dino.

The teens also face off with Pride’s alien leader Jonah (Julian McMahon). “He has been on Earth for centuries and recruited The Pride. He is dying and the only way to revive him is a human sacrifice,” says Julian. The Runaways is more than just sci-fi for Ariela though: “It’s a wonderful metaphor about rebelling when you look at US politics. We’re showing that we can be our own superheroes.”