It’s the end of the road for Marvel’s Hulu drama Runaways.
The Disney-backed streamer on Monday announced that the upcoming third season of the young adult-focused series will be its last. The show, from Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (Looking for Alaska, Nancy Drew), will return Dec. 13 for its final season.
With the decision to end Runaways, Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb era continues to dwindle. With the executive expected to formally announce his departure before Thanksgiving, Marvel’s Loeb-produced TV roster is now down to Hulu’s upcoming Helstrom and a slate of four animated series, as well as the previously announced final season of ABC’s Agents of SHIELD.
Runways becomes the latest Loeb-developed Marvel TV series to come to an end. Freeform’s Cloak and Dagger was canceled in October after a two-season run at the Disney-owned cable network; FX’s Legion ended earlier this year; and ABC’s Agents of SHIELD will close up shop in 2020. Meanwhile, the previously announced straight-to-series live-action drama Ghost Rider was scrapped.
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Looking forward, the rest of Marvel’s TV series are being produced by the comic book powerhouse’s film division that has been overseen by Kevin Feige. Those include Disney+ live-action spinoffs of its hugely successful Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Marvel will be a cornerstone of Disney+ — which launched Nov. 12 — with spinoffs of MCU titles including Loki (starring Tom Hiddleston), WandaVision (with Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen) and Falcon & the Winter Soldier (led by Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan). Other Marvel TV series set to launch on the streamer include What If, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk and Moon Knight. All of those shows are produced not by Loeb’s unit, but by Feige’s film division.
Feige, who has overseen Marvel’s multibillion-dollar box office dominance — was promoted last month and now oversees the creative direction of the company’s content creation, including publishing, film, TV and animation. As part of the consolidation, Loeb’s Marvel TV and the animation-focused Marvel Family Entertainment have also moved under Feige’s Marvel Studios banner. That officially knocks down the wall that had existed between Marvel’s film and TV units.
As for Hulu, with Runaways coming to an end, the streamer’s scripted roster includes Fox import The Orville, Disney+ transfer High Fidelity, Little Fires Everywhere, Pen15, Ramy, Shrill, Solar Opposites, Dollface, Reprisal and The Handmaid’s Tale, among others.
As for Schwartz and Savage, Runaways was the last project to stem from the duo’s previous overall deal with ABC Studios. The longtime collaborators this year also had the Hulu limited series Looking for Alaska and now have not one, but two TV overall deals — a first-look pact at Apple and a broadcast-only deal with CBS TV Studios. For the latter, they produce The CW’s Nancy Drew and Dynasty. Schwartz and Savage also have an updated take on Gossip Girl coming to HBO Max.
Gregg Sulkin, James Marsters and Ever Carradine starred on Runaways, which was based on Brian K. Vaughan’s comic series.
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