As far back as the release of Iron Man, Marvel had announced plans to release a film based on Runaways, based on the Brian K. Vaughan comic of the same name. Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Peace, in a chat with the Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith (via The Hollywood Reporter) said that while there were definite plans for adapting the comic, but that the success of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers stopped it for the moment.
Pearce, who wrote Runaways as one of his first projects for Marvel, notes: “We were really close to being made, and then this movie started to happen called The Avengers. Oddly, it pulled focus from the unheard-of brand Runaways, and it really did kind of consume the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s there — maybe it’ll be a Phase Three movie. I really hope so. I’m really proud of it and I think it’ll be a brilliant film, but I think it all depends what Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel, his master plan is.”
Runaways originally ran in 2003/2004, before being revived a year later and experiencing a second life through to 2009. It’s about a group of teenagers who discover that their parents were members of a secret villain organisation called Pride, and that they have inherited powers that they use to fight their own parents.
The source goes on to cite Shane Black as naming Pearce’s Runaways script as “one of the better screenplays that’s sitting on a shelf somewhere”, and not to expect the film in the immediate future. However, with a handful of unannounced films with dates secured sitting out there for the plucking, perhaps something with a youthful spin would be interesting.
