Virginia Gardner: All about the 3rd and final season of ‘Marvel’s Runaways’

It’s the beginning of the end for the Hulu-Marvel teen drama Runaways. It was announced on Monday, Nov. 18th that Runaways will end following its upcoming third season on the streaming platform. The series, based on the Marvel Comics series Runaways, follows a group of teenagers who find out that their parents are secretly supervillains known as the PRIDE. 

Together the group that includes mastermind Alex Wilder (Rhenzy Feliz), Nico Minoru (Lyrica Okano), Karolina Dean (Virginia Gardner), Gert Yorkes (Ariela Barer), Chase Stein (Gregg Sulkin), and Molly Hernandez (Allegra Acosta) try to sabotage their parents plans and keep their makeshift family together. 

Runaways proved a popular show for Hulu, seasons one and two having achieved a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. A lot of praise goes to the acting of its large cast (16 regulars) and how it manages to capture the spirit of the comics while establishing its own identity. 

With the cancellation announced, there are questions brewing about season three. Will the series have a satisfying ending? Will everyone be able to have a happy ending of sorts? Will the group be able to live free and clear, away from the sins of their parents? Will the Gibborim be stopped?

Luckily for you, we have answers to some of these questions. Here’s everything we know about the third & final season of Runaways.

The Marvel’s Runaways trailer promises everything coming to a head.

From dealing with the possession of Victor Stein (James Marsters), Stacey Yorkes (Brigid Brannagh), and Tina Minoru (Brittany Ishibashi) by the Magistrate’s family to Morgan le Fay (Elizabeth Hurley) trying to lure Nico for her own plans, the group has a lot to deal with in the final season. It looks like everything is heading to one explosive conclusion.

While everyone appears to be in danger, it looks like it will focus on Nico, based on the trailer. The continuous tapping into the powers of the Dark Dimension is clearly having some kind of toll on her. It looks like she and the others are going to have to reckon with their powers. 

The synopsis for the season promises equal focus on the Magistrate’s family (and its missing member) and Morgan le Fay. 

“In an action-packed Season 3, the Runaways frantically search for their captured friends Chase, Gert, and Karolina. The kids go head to head with an unstoppable enemy who has targeted Leslie – or more accurately, the child she’s carrying. Nico draws them all into a dark realm where its ruler Morgan le Fay, played by Elizabeth Hurley, is much more nefarious than anyone the kids have yet to face.”

Tandy & Tyrone make an appearance in the Runaways trailer.

It turns out whatever Nico’s doing is having effects on other people who access darkness, like Tyrone (Aubrey Joseph). Will it hurt him and Tandy (Olivia Holt) to see them after the cancellation of Cloak & Dagger? Absolutely.

It’s hard to tell just what connection Tyrone has to the Dark Dimension. His connection to darkness doesn’t affect him like Nico’s does. Hopefully, we’ll get some clarification on everything. 

It does seem like Tandy and Nico will have a very snarky relationship. Nico calls Tandy’s hard light daggers “glow sticks” in the trailer while Tandy calls Nico “Hot Topic”. All we have to say is come on, Tandy, you can do better than the low-hanging fruit. 

The final season will form a natural end to Runaways.

If you’re worried that this cancellation was as sudden as Freeform’s Cloak & Dagger, don’t fret. A source to show told Variety that the creative team feels season three provides a “natural” conclusion to the show. 

Whether or not the ending has to do with Disney+’s launch and slate of live-action Marvel series, we can’t speculate. Based on what is being said, it sounds like season three will provide fans closure for Runaways’s plotlines. 

Runaways is one of the few remaining live-action shows under the Marvel Television creative umbrella. The only other two shows that remain from Jeph Loeb, who will exit Marvel Television by the end of the year, are Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hulu’s upcoming Helstrom.

Runaways season three will be the same length as season one.

Season three will have a 10-episode length, which is a decrease in comparison to Runaways’s 13-episode second season. It’s possible that with the extra episodes in season two, everything became a little drawn out. Episode order can be hard to master, after all. 

It could also mean that viewership was down in season two. Hulu couldn’t justify having a 13-episode season for season three.

Runaways needs to be saved!

Hopefully, the whole “natural” end for the series that the Variety source promised is true. We’re not sure if the cancellation was just foisted upon everyone because Disney+ exists. Either way, Runaways deserves a second life.

Not only does Runaways follow a compelling story about complicated family relationships, kids trying to be better than their parents, and teenagers discovering themselves, it’s also a show grounded in emotion & growth in dynamic characters. There’s something raw about this intense coming-of-age journey that we don’t want to see end.