The Hulu superhero series Marvel’s Runaways, from executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (Gossip Girl), returns for its second season on Dec. 21. At the end of season 1, the titular band of teens, after discovering their parents are supervillains, finally ran away from home.
“This year is much more the cat-and-mouse [game] and the two sides going to war,” says Savage. So, naturally, season 2 begins with the friends finding a new place to hide as they strategize on how to deal with their diabolical parental units.
“It’s in Griffith Park,” Savage explains of the hideout, which is called the Hostel in the comics that inspired the streaming series. “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.” Adds Schwartz, “We wanted it to be our equivalent of, like, the Batcave.” Teenagers really need a place to hang out…even if it’s an underground dust-filled mansion.
This season, the gang is joined by Molly’s (Allegra Acosta) enigmatic new acquaintance Topher (Jan Luis Castellanos). “He is a character who’s from the comics,” Schwartz teases of the character also seen in the new trailer.
“He’s not all that he appears to be.” Interiors for the Hostel were constructed at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles and were massive. “It’s the biggest set that Marvel Television has ever built,” says Schwartz. “When [comic co-creator] Brian K. Vaughan came to the set for the first time, he had tears in his eyes.”
The Hostel even blesses the group with some new accessories thanks to an antiquated but full closet. “There’s the perfect wide-legged 1970s jeans for Karolina (Virginia Gardner) and the perfect leather jacket for Gert (Ariela Barer) and an adorable tiny tuxedo jacket for Nico (Lyrica Okanu),” says Savage. “So everything you’d want from every era is hiding in that closet.” No one wants to be dressed in sweats when you’re saving the world.
Marvel’s Runaways returns Dec. 21 on Hulu.
