WMG / Runaways (2017)

Beware of Late-Arrival Spoiler from the comics and complete series!

Unconfirmed

General Pre-Season One Theories

Tina and Robert Minoru turned evil as a result of the events of Doctor Strange

That was the consequence Baron Mordo was afraid of.

• If the Pride conspiracy has been going on in the show as long as it did in the comics, it's more likely that they were secretly evil all along. And as a master of the mystic arts, Tina would have been in the best position possible to keep their actions under the radar of the Sorcerer Supreme.

Gert's favorite pieces of pop culture from The '90s will be:

Daria and Ghost World.

General Season One Theories

Victor Mancha will be created by Victor Stein in this version

Stein salvaged some of Ultron's sentry parts (that way his connection to Ultron will remain the same) and worked him into a bio-android. In this version, he'll be called "Victor Stein Jr.," unless Marianella Mancha was heavily involved with his creation.

• Victor is confirmed to exist in the future, though it's unclear how he comes to be.

Victor Mancha will be related to Molly somehow.

It could happen, since this version of Molly is Latina, and they'd share that background. He probably won't be called Victor here, though.

Victor Mancha won't be an android.

Or at the very least, not one created by Ultron, since the television shows haven't really tied themselves to the films very much lately. It would help keep the series standalone and unconnected to the broader MCU.

The show is set before the events of Doctor Strange (2016)

The timeline of the MCU is somewhat hard to predict at times thanks to not everything being released in chronological order, with Doctor Strange in particular being set over the course of several years and really, the only thing known about it is that it happened at some point before Ragnarok, which itself we only know happened two years after Age of Ultron^note Plus, Homecoming threw anything we did know about the MCU's exact timeline under the bus since it decided that its been eight years since Avengers, meaning that any actual reference to the passage of time and setting can be taken as loose at best. The show in turn isn't confirmed exactly where it lines up compared to the others, but given that it has the least amount of references to the larger MCU compared to everything else, its possible its set quite a bit before its release date.

Which, really, can help explain Tina's different characterisations.Though Tina is initially presented as the most villainous member of the PRIDE, its apparent by the end of Season 1 that she's no more evil than the others and, with Amy's death and Jonah's threats prior to that, she had a decent Freudian Excuse. As the PRIDE are setting out to stop Jonah by the end of the season, its possible that they'll undergo a full Heel–Face Turn, and Tina, at the very least, will survive, albeit at the cost of everything.So, where does someone who's gifted with magic (albeit technologically-assisted magic) who lost everything end up? Joining the Masters of the Mystic Arts.

Confirmed

General Pre-Season One Theories

Because otherwise Somewhere, a paleontologist is crying

Old Lace will be some sort of feathered dromeosaur.

• Semi-confirmed. While Old Lace has feathers, it's still less than a real raptor.
  • Basically confirmed, as Old Lace is specifically identified as a Deinonychus, which paleontologists have theorized had feathers.

Xavin won't appear in the first season

Victor would probably be a season 2 addition as well.

• Seems like the case. The series is stretching the origin of the team out, so they haven't even spent that much time as, well, runaways yet.
  • Confirmed; Xavin debuts in the second season.

General Season One Theories

The man in the white room is Karolina's father.

And Leslie isn't all that keen on him wanting to meet his daughter.... But he thinks he's her father, and Leslie doesn't want him to find out he isn't which is why she looks so nervous when he brings it up..

• Confirmed. Jonah is Karolina's real father, but Leslie did want them to meet, at least at first.

The Hernandezes' deaths wasn't an accident.

They tried to leave the Pride, but one of them had them killed.

• Confirmed: It's revealed in "Doomsday" that Leslie threw a bomb and called Tina letting her know it's done.

The Staff of One is still magical.

Tina explains in Metamorphoses that she developed it in her lab via scientific theories. This is a lie; she's hiding the fact that magic is real. She doesn't explain how it can silence things or make snowstorm. It's still an ancient magical artifact. (As for the blood scanner for her computer, she uses it because of how secure it is, and because she's used to getting nicked because of the staff).

• Magic in the MCU frequently mingles with science-notably on Asgard where Thor said they are considered one and the same. It's entirely possible Alien science/tech can interact with wizardry.
  • Confirmed in season 2.

The Staff works on mitochondrial DNA.

The reason Nico, and possibly Amy, could use that staff is that they're Tina's children and the staff pings to mitochondrial DNA, the type passed down from mother to child. In full.

• Confirmed.

Pre-Season 2

Jonahs's plan

Related to a previous theory but Jonah is other human avatar of one of the Gibborim whose plan is to free his two self and his two brother Gibborim. Or he is a herald freeing his masters.

• Semi-confirmed. He wants to free his entire nuclear family, which includes a daughter, son, and wife.

Topher won't be a vampire in the show

After the first season stripped nearly all of the comics' more fantastical elements away, it's doubtful they'd be willing to throw a vampire into the mix out of nowhere.

• Confirmed. He's a human who was given powers by the same rocks as Molly.

Post-Season Two Theories (contain spoilers)

Nico sent AWOL and his team to the Dark Dimension.

• Confirmed.

Most if not all of the parents will be killed.

As part of Heroic Sacrifices/Death Equals Redemption.

• Confirmed that some parents are killed by the end of the series, but not most of them. Robert and Angel are killed, while Janet Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. All of the other parents live.

The Mole

Chase is The Mole

He's noticeably more intelligent here than he was in the comics, and it was his suggestion to go to Geoffrey's study to steal booze, leading to the discovery of the secret room.

• Semi-confirmed, as he comes the closest to being a mole and sells out the team at one point, but it's not a permanent thing.

There isn't a mole among the kids, but...

One of the kids will turn to their parents' side while the others run away — possibly Chase. He has been the one least willing to believe their parents could be evil.

• Close, he does go back to the parents, but not until near the end of season 2.

Jossed

General Pre-Season One Theories

The Gibborim will be shown as giant smoke clouds

Because their forms in the comic would be considered "too silly" by TV going audiences.

• No, they wouldn't, Tom Rothman.
• It's seen as an old man with cracked skin. Not a cloud but a far cry from giant animal-headed gods.

Nobody has powers (or at least not the main characters)

If you read the character profiles released by Marvel, both for the kids and their parents, no superpowers are mentioned anywhere. It's not just that there is no mention to anything from the MCU anywhere, nothing superhuman is mentioned or even suggested. Some people may suspect that they do this to introduce them as normal people, and then reveal their powers in dramatic reveals (X is an alien! Y is an inhuman! Z is a sorcerer!), as in the comic. But perhaps... Marvel is being completely honest, and the series is really meant to be focused simply on a group of runaway teenagers, with no superpowers interfering with the story. "My parents are actually super villains?" and "How can I manage my life while on the run?" take up enough angst just by themselves, adding "How Do I Shot Web?" to the mix is overkill. Also, the MCU does not have time travel yet; if it is introduced it will be at some very important film (such as the Avengers vs. Kang the Conqueror), not as a minor backstory of a TV character's parents.

• Jossed. A leak of the first teaser/trailer shows someone (Molly?) with superstrength and also shows Karolina Dean in her Majestrian form.

The Yorkses killed Molly's parents

Either by accident or in a panic. The two families planned to run away as a group, but the Hernandezes broke down and decided to come clean, prompting the Yorkses to silence them. They adopted Molly out of guilt.

• Jossed: The Yorkses and Hernandez both knew what was going down and Hernandezes got killed in the process.

The Hernandez family will be Inhumans

They're the next best thing in the MCU to Mutants.

• Jossed, as Molly clearly has her powers, but developed them without being exposed to a Terrigen crystal or being encased in a chrysalis as portrayed on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
  • Unless her powers somehow manifested during puberty without needing to go into Terrigen.
    • Still unlikely, because exposure to Terrigen is more or less the only accepted canon method of having one's Inhuman abilities manifest — though it's possible it happened prior to the events of the show and we just never saw it.
    • In Episode 9 young Molly was exposed to glowy blue rocks from the dig site before her eyes flash yellow. It would be a new form, but Terrigen is not out of the question.
    • Effectively jossed as of the series finale, as Molly's powers are never explicitly identified as Inhuman.

Xavin will be a Chitauri or a Kree

Since the Skrulls are tied up with the Fantastic Four.

• Xavin could still be a Skrull, just a regular Skrull since it is the Super Skrulls who are tied up with the FF/Fox.
  • With Skrulls officially appearing in Captain Marvel this line of reasoning is happily contradicted.
  • Now that Marvel owns Fox Studios, the Skrulls are fair game for the MCU.
    • Jossed in season 2, where she's identified as a Xartan.

The Runaways will keep the handles this time...

...but still shun costumes.

• The MCU tends to be okay with people being called by their given names a lot of the time. Given that the comic characters were only associated with names like "Arsenic" and "Sister Grimm" for a very short time, there wouldn't be as much pressure to have them called those aliases.
  • The way it works in the MCU is that that the characters officially have codenames, but the heroes interact mostly with people they are familiar enough with that they are on first/last name basis (either friends and allies, or villains for whom It's Personal). The Runaways in the comics did the same thing for the same reason; the kids are True Companions so calling each other by their code names would be wierd, and either their parents would know them from appearance (during the original miniseries) or they have no one outside the group that they need to keep a secret for (after that), so they had no reasons to try and keep a secret identity. All in all, there'sless of a chance they'll stick to their codenames in the MCU than in the comics.
    • Jossed. The handles don't come up at all.
    • ... they haven't yet, anyway.
    • Ultimately jossed by the series finale, as they've never kept codenames.

The Yorkeses and Steins used to work for Tony Stark

And they quit because, well, Tony is who he is.

• Jossed by the series finale, as Stark is never mentioned at any point.

All the Runaways will be connected indirectly to the rest of the MCU

My Guessings about them are the next:

• Nico Minoru: obviously with Doctor Strange (2016), since her mother appears in the movie. Maybe her mother was a more nice person...until Mordo decided to strip her of her powers or tortured her because he wanted the names and directions of her apprentices.
  • Jossed. Tina's status as the same woman from the film is ...iffy.
• Alex Wilder: his parents were one of the many criminal families of New York or had associates there, but decided to get out of the city for very good and rational reasons.
  • Jossed. Geoffrey's previous criminal career was in Los Angeles as a member of the Crips. Catherine is an Amoral Attorney, and this was her role in the past prior to the show.
• Karolina Dean: her mother would casually mention having a previous relationship with a Manchild with a ridiculous nickname before coming to Earth.
  • It doesn't even seem like Leslie is an alien in this series.
• Gert Yorkers: her parents would be previously scientists of SHIELD that were charged with studying the Tesseract and ended without work after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Old Lace is not a dinosaur but an alien animal that they accidentally summoned during an experiment and decided to take with them.
  • Jossed. The couple are bioengineers who created Old Lace after joining the organization as a form of protection for Gert. No reference to SHIELD is made.
• Chase Stein: his parents worked on the military branch of Stark Industries until they lost their job when Tony closed that branch. For bonus points, it will be revealed that they were among the scientists that were berated by Odadiah Stane for fail to replicate Tony's Armor.
  • Jossed. Victor is the CEO of his own successful company and Janet isn't linked to the science side of things.
• Molly Hernandez: her parents were civilians until they ate some fish oil supplements and everyone they knew began to see them as less than human. Or they were from Afterlife and escaped or were exiled before having Molly or when she was very little, making her ignorant of her heritage. However they still had with them some of the supplements or maybe even a Terrigen Crystal that Molly WILL end up using during the pilot or in the middle/ending of the First Season.
  • Jossed.
• Victor Mancha: an LMD or Ultron Drone that gained true sentience. If he is an Ultron Drone, he has matured more than the original and really thinks like a human. The Runaways would be the first people he finds that at least hear his side of the story and he joins the group to atone for the sins of his creator.
  • Jossed, as Victor never appears in the series but is confirmed to exist in the future.
• Xavin: a Chitauri that survived when Iron Man closed the Portal, he/she and others of his/her species had been hunted by SHIELD and HYDRA since the failed invasion, making him/her the Last of His Kind on Earth right now. This, however, will serve to Retcon the Chitaury into an entire Tragic Villain species: it will be revealed that Thanos conquered their planet and forced the survivors to be transformed into his soldiers. The reason they are Always Chaotic Evil is because they are completely aware of their situation, with Xavin being one of the few that hadn't turn insane. To make his/her situation more of a Tear Jerker, he/she is at the brick of taking his/her own life after all that has happened when the Runaways find him/her. To explain his/her powers, it would be revealed that the Chitauri had been experimented in the past by the Kree, making him/her a non-human Inhuman, and can change appearances because he/she stole a camouflage device similar to the used by Agent 33 from some HYDRA operatives.
  • Jossed; Xavin is a Xartan in the series.
• Klara Prast: an Inhuman, Human Alien stranded on Earth and adopted or just a Gifted, she began to show powers at an early age and her parents thought they were antinatural, but knew that their neighbors would meddle if they tried to kill her, so they decided to marry her to a guy that could be her father to get rid of her. Now, there are two options about how to do this: 1) Klara exist in Present Day but lives in a community like the Amish, that likely don't have a clue about all that had happened in the world outside their village; and 2)the Runaways travel in time to 1907 and, when they discover her situation, take her with them. Hey, if they do 2) the 1) would be a very good excuse if they had to explain her behaviour to modern day people.
  • Jossed, as Klara never appears in the series.

About Molly...

Someone will say that "she's a little runaway"

• Jossed, as this never happens throughout the series.

General Season One Theories

Amy Minoru was sacrificed to the Gibborim

And the real reason why Robert is cheating on Tina is because he didn't approve of the sacrifice while Tina was willing.

• Jossed. A body completely vanishes when put through the sacrifice and doesn't leave a corpse behind. There are still hints that Amy was murdered instead of the suicide that it appears to be, but it wasn't a sacrifice.

Amy was told about the PRIDE once she turned eighteen, and killed herself out of horror.

In the comics, the PRIDE kids were supposed to be told upon turning eighteen — instead, they found out about Destiny's death and ran away. Here, Amy was told about the PRIDE according to their rules, but couldn't stomach being a part of it.

• Jossed. Amy learned about what was going on because she hacked into her mother's files without her knowledge, and is implied to have been murdered when she was caught.

Tina's Password wasn't Password, it was Amy.

The Password Alex entered in was too short to be 'password.' But a grieving mother setting her password to her daughter's name? That makes a lot more sense.

• But wouldn't a tech genius like Tina know better than use her daughter's three-character name as a password for such sensitive material?
  • Jossed. While Alex was lying about the password being "password", he knew the real password because Amy herself had hacked the system two years ago and Alex knew about it.

Alex Wilder will die at the end of the first season

While the circumstances are different, as a character, Alex was just needed to unite the group. Being the only one without abilities or high-tech, his usefulness to the group is that he has access. Now that everyone's parents know about their children acting against them, Alex doesn't have much to contribute for the audience and will be killed off. And with Karolina and Nico's developing romantic interest with each other, Alex's death will be a factor in prolonging that development for next season. And it will add an extra sense of guilt for Nico, who was not able to forgive him before he died.

• He will probably die, doing something noble for his friends unlike in the comics.
• Jossed. He's never killed.

Amy Minoru's death was caused by her using magic

We see that in order to activate the magic staff, it required a bit of blood use it, which can imply Power at a Price rules. Maybe Amy was using magic, beyond what she could handle, and it killed her and her parents covered it up.

• Jossed. Jonah murdered Amy.

Amy, not Alex, discovered the PRIDE conspiracy prior to the events of the show.

Alex is The Mole in the comics because the two non-human PRIDE couples, the Deans and the Hayeses, were ganging up on everyone else. This can't translate to the show, since Frank Dean is unaware of what the PRIDE does and the Hernandezes are dead. So perhaps instead of Alex, it was Amy who walked in on a PRIDE meeting before her death. The PRIDE reacted by silencing her, making it look like a suicide.

• Jossed, but the actual truth holds some surface similarities. Amy didn't discover the PRIDE conspiracy, but she tried hacking into her mom's servers, causing Jonah to murder her.

Topher will be Adapted Out.

We know that magic can exist in the MCU, but it can feel very contrived if a vampire just appeared in this show.

• Jossed, Topher has been cast for Season 2.
  • And is a human given powers by the same rocks as Molly.

The man in the white room isn't Karolina's father, Frank Dean is.

• Jossed. Both Jonah and Leslie have confirmed that Jonah is Karolina's real father.

Eiffel will play a larger role and possibly get superpowers of her own.

It seems unlikely that Danielle Campbell would take such a small role. Especially being more famous than most of the cast.

• Jossed. She never appears again after the first season.

Amy and/or Nico are clones of their mother.

The staff and other technology that was designed to respond to Tina only also responds to Nico. They mention in the show that this is due to 50-51% of Nico's DNA being the same as Amy's, but it could be because they have exactly the same DNA.

• Jossed. This never comes up.

Jonah is human

And Karolina is half-human. Alien means were simply used to extend his lifespan.

• Jossed. He's Gibborim.

The reason why Molly's power origin is taking so long to be revealed

It's because Disney and Marvel Studios prepared in advance for the 21st Century Fox buyout and have filmed alternate scenes of people using the word "Mutant" and "Inhuman." This will potentially make Molly the first canon Mutant in the MCU.

• if true, it would be a very long delay. The Fox / Disney merger still needs approval from the government as of the end of season 1.
  • Jossed. The origin of her powers is never identified either way.

Amy's soul is in the staff

It goes along with her mom's orders, but actively tries to protect Nico and her friends.

• Jossed, though she later appears in the Dark Dimension.

The meaning of "Find Elian..."

Elian isn't just Molly's plush elephant, but also the MCU's version of Victor Mancha — possibly an older cousin who could help her with her powers?

• Jossed, as Victor is eventually confirmed to exist with the same name.

Jonah is Gibborim.

In the MCU, Gibborim isn't a race of aliens, but specifically a singular entity named Gibborim who spawned a cult in his name — and Jonah is him.

• Jossed. Gibborim are a race, not a single being.

[[folder:Post-Season Two Theories (contain spoilers)]]

Someone else was at the dig site that night

Might be an Ass Pull but it's possible that someone else, [[From Nobody to Nightmare perhaps one of the guards is the real host.

• Jossed.

Pre-Season 2

The season will have these comics moments:

Place anything you think they will adapt, from page to screen:

• The Runaways heading to Chase's secret hideout.
• This badass line from Alex, which may be either Foreshadowing or a Red Herring towards his comic death.
  "If [being an adult] means turning into the people who raised us... I hope I die before I get old."
• Karolina, Nico, Alex and Chase stop a group of burglars who try to rob a convenience store.
• Cloak and Dagger's appearance (And subsequent mind erasure by the PRIDE).
• A Take That! towards Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if they bring in Topher or not.
• Molly ends up riding Old Lace, even spouting her comic line of having put her hat on the dinosaur.
  "I PUT MY HAT ON OLD LACE!"
  • Everyone else but Alex having fun with their powers in Chase's hideout, with Alex bemoaning that he is basically in hell after he has died.
  • None of the above happened, so Jossed.

Post-Season Two Theories (contain spoilers)

Chase won't be welcomed back into the team.

Even after learning that Jonah has possessed, it doesn't change the fact that Chase chose to leave the team to be with his parents.

• Jossed, though there's some animosity lingering.

Alex has not been possessed.

It seems like, with his comics canon role of traitor, he'd be too obvious to be the last host for fans, so more likely one of the others will be the host.

• Jossed. He is the final host of Jonah's family.

The Mole

Alex Wilder won't be The Mole this time

Chase will take this role, this time, after some misdirection involving Alex and/or Gert.

• This seems likely as he's beginning to be close to his dad.
  • Confirmed, although Chase doesn't take his spot - instead, it seems that Frank Dean has the position of Mole this time.
  • Double subverted in that Alex is revealed to be the final host of Jonah's family in season 3, and is shown to have an evil counterpart in the future, meaning he does become a mole of some sort.

Molly is the mole

The parents don't know she's on their side. Taking a picture of the PRIDE sacrifice using flash, her Bad Liar moment blurting "I didn't see anything" and telling Catherine that time was running out weren't stupid mistakes, she was trying to tip them off that the kids know. And Molly and mole start with the same 3 letters.

• Jossed.

Gert is the Mole

She discovered the dinosaur a while ago and secretly trained her which is why she obeys her. Of the main characters she was the most nonchalant about her parents being murderers and tried to deny it to throw off the crew. Her SJW tendencies were just an act to throw off suspicion, given she just casually told her friends to hold off "Smashing the Patriarchy".

• Jossed.

Alex is still The Mole, and he killed Amy

While he's clearly less villainous and his comic-book motivation isn't an option, a lot of Alex's behaviour still gives some hints (not attending Amy's funeral, making a dig at his parents' urgent charity meetings, spontaneously deciding to bring everyone back together coincidentally on what should be the last PRIDE sacrifice night, being the one to 'accidentally' open the secret door, etc).So, theory: Two years ago, Alex and Amy somehow ended up discovering the PRIDE's existence 2 years ago together, leading Alex to killing her to keep her silent when she wanted to tell everyone and/or alert the authorities. Though he managed to get her body back to her bedroom and make it look like suicide, it still guilted him enough to make him skip the funeral. Since then, he's been a Secret Secret-Keeper for the PRIDE's existence, and with his friends all drifting away from him, he tried to bring them all back together by using their families' dark connection to push them. Ultimately he doesn't want to kill his friends or bring down his family's secret, but he's trying to do a long-con to end the secret and bring the kids and their parents all together on the PRIDE's schemes, and his murder of Amy is what serves as a Moral Event Horizon to prevent him being too sympathetic.

• Jossed. Alex does become a sort of mole later on, but he isn't responsible for Amy's death.

Amy is alive and will be the equivalent of the mole in this

• Jossed.

Karolina is the Mole.

Because Jonah allows her to be saved by the Runaways. Though it's possible she's an unknowing one.

• Jossed. Although she does go to him to learn about herself. Mid-season, she chose her friends, but was devastated when Nico killed him as revenge for Amy.

Alex is still the Mole, but will be portrayed in more tragic way.

Don't you feel bad for Alex, that he's the one who gather the group in the first place, yet by the end of Season 1 he kinds of get minimum respect: His first suggestion to leave the city without Karolina as soon as possible is outright rejected and they run highly risky mission to save Karolina from Church of Gibborim and only succeeded because Leslie and, apparently, Jonah, let them escapeThen the team has two couples, Chase-Gert and Karolina-Nico, it must be frustrating for Alex that he Did Not Get the Girl despite he almost hooked up with Nico before until she dumped him because she's angry that he was keeping secret about Amy's death, let alone him being the one who gather the team in the first place.

So eventually it all takes a toll on him, making him betray the group because they "made" him do it.

• Jossed. He doesn't become the mole, and the team starts to forgive him. Although he still made a few stupid mistakes.

Alex will accidentally be the mole because of Darius

At the end of the first season season Alex forms a partnership with Darius of some kind, receiving money and a gun]] In season 2 It will be revealed that they maintain some kind of contact and at some point PRIDE will find out about this and blackmail him, possibly through his unborn/newborn kid to reveal everything he learns.

This will lead to Alex being blamed but instead of becoming an enemy Alex will merely be consumed with guilt, sending him on a redemption Arc.

• Sort of yes, sort of no. Darius does give up Alex to his dad but he doesn't learn much else about the others.