Josh Schwartz: Well, I think it means treating the problems of teenagers as if they are adults. And I think for us, we wanted it to feel true and authentic to the teenage experience, even in this heightened context. Which makes sense since The O.C. sort of had a heightened concept too, but it still felt relatable to those who were watching it. And similar to The O.C. where we'd surprise people by how important the parent storylines would be, which was unexpected for a lot of people, we're taking the same approach here. For us, the ability to open up the show and dig into the adult characters, the members of The Pride, the same way we do for the Runaways themselves, I think it'll surprise viewers. And those who've read the comic too. It was something that we talked to Brian K. Vaughan about early and it was something he was excited to participate in. IGN: Yeah, it would a shame to just marginalize the parents given some of the great actors you have in there.
Schwartz: When we were talking to Brian about the run of the book and how they churned through so much story and how the parent characters had to be so evil, it's because, as he said, every issue they thought they were getting canceled. So I think there's an opportunity now to slow down and dig in. It's something we want to take advantage of. Because the kid characters are so great in the book and they hold up so well, we just wanted to make sure the adults had the same opportunity.
Stephanie Savage: It's also a blue sky California show, which is pretty unique in the Marvel TV world. Music is super important to the show.
IGN: I was wondering about that too since it was also so integral to The O.C. Will it be a mix of score and songs?
Schwartz: Yeah, it's going to be a good mix and Alex Patsavas, who's been our music supervisor on everything, is our music supervisor on this. Even when we started up, each character kind of had their own distinct playlist and their own sound and I think there's going to be a lot of cool music on the show.
IGN: I know no one's saying right now just how much this show connects to the larger MCU, but would you say you were able to make this show without having to be overly concerned about how it joins up with the other shows on other networks and the big blockbuster movies?
Schwartz: Yeah. How it connects or whether it does or not, we'll leave that to the powers that be. I can just tell you that we were very capable of telling the story that we wanted to tell independent of any of the other Marvel stories that are out there.
IGN: You also have mentioned that there's no true central villain or antagonist here.
Schwartz: Well, sure. Obviously the parents are the villains in some regard. That's the premise. But I think what we want to be able to do is delve into those characters and realize that everybody is kind of flawed, perhaps, but that there are no cliched mustache-twirling bad guys who are just out for world domination.
Savage: Everyone's doing what they're doing for a reason. Schwartz: Which is true of parents and kids. Kids rebel and don't always want to listen to their parents, and sometimes it's because they shouldn't. And parents do things because they think they know better or they're looking out for their kids best interests, whether or not they're right or they share the same values as their kids.
Savage: Or they can explain to their kids why they're doing what they're doing.
Schwartz: All that stuff feels real and true regardless of what genre you're in.
IGN: You've got gritty Marvel Netflix shows that sort of push at a hard PG-13 and then there are new Marvel teen shows coming to Freeform. One of them's Cloak and Dagger and it looks pretty serious too. What would you say the tone of your series is?
Schwartz: I'd say it really mirrors the tone of the comic. It's so distinct. I remember the first time I read the comic and I was like "I don't know who this Brian K. Vaughan is, but this is my people. This is speaking to me." So we really tried to honor that tone. Truthfully, there's a lot of his tone that didn't feel all that different from the tone that we like to work in. There's humor and banter and angst and romance and love triangles, so there's a lot of overlap that felt very organic for us. When he joined us in the room if felt very seamless and natural.
IGN: I also have to ask about Tina Minoru. She's a weird little Doctor Strange Easter egg. Because the Tina character was in the movie, but in a background role where she was never named. That has to be sort of an odd thing to have out there.
Schwartz: She was only named in the credits so it's nothing that really affects us. Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
