I was a big fan of the Marvel Comics series Runaways. Created by Brian K. Vaughan, the series focused on a group of teenagers who runaway when they discover that their parents are a group of supervillains known as “The Pride”. As the kids try to find their way, they stumble upon surprising aspects of their birthrights. It’s a great story about adolescence intertwined with Marvel Universe staples such as aliens, mutants, and magic. Over three years ago, Drew Pearce was hired to write the screenplay based on the success of his superhero parody series, No Heroics. The project seemed like it was gearing up for production, but then it went into stasis as The Avengers became the studio’s big “team” movie.

Pearce went on to co-write Iron Man 3, and now he’s written and directed the latest Marvel One-Shot, All Hail the King. During our conversation, we geeked out a bit over Runaways, and he told me how his script compared to the comic, how it could be The Godfather of the Marvel Universe (in terms of families and a crime syndicate), how he would use Joss Whedon‘s run from the comics, and more. Hit the jump to check out the interview. All Hail the King will be available on the Blu-ray for Thor: The Dark World, which hits shelves on February 25th. Click here to pre-order.

During the end of our interview, I turned the discussion towards Runaways, and he told me that at his very first meeting with Marvel, he said he wanted to do it:

DREW PEARCE: I adore the comics, and the first thing I ever talked to Marvel about. In my first general meeting with Marvel, they were like, “We love No Heroics! If there was anything you’d like to do at Marvel, what would it be?” and Runaways was at the top of my list. I think Brian [K. Vaughan] is—often a misused word—a genius. Saga currently shows that as well as anything else.

Getting more into specifics, I asked how the movie related to the comics, and if he was starting from the first arc or jumping into the middle of the series:

PEARCE: So yeah, I had used the first arc as my template. It’s a hugely cinematic arc. I can’t really comment on how I used the twist, but I think thus far you can see from some of the stuff I’ve done I do quite like a twist. You can definitely presume that some of the zig-zagging that goes on in Runaways the comic made it into the movie.

Pearce then made a measured comparison to The Godfather, not in terms of “This would be one of the all-time classics of cinema,” but in terms of a crime family relating to a real family:

PEARCE: But I think the big difference being that—as grandiose as it sounds—cinematically I wanted it to reflect (and this is going to sound ridiculous), but for me, Runaways can be The Godfather of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And The Pride in my version were an even more branded crime syndicate. I think if you then look at the arcs and character twists you were talking about, and that lineage, it’s in a very analogous way.

He then expanded it to how the movie would reflect other superhero films:

PEARCE: Plus, what I think is so original about Runaways is that it takes sort of the Spider-Man conceit of “With great power comes great responsibility” and I actually played that out on the other side of the fence. The kids realize that through the misuse of power by their parents, and then have to find their own journey like it’s a mirror of that. I think there is nothing like it in the world, in the world of superhero comics and in superhero movies. And I think it could be brilliant. As you can hear, I’m so deeply passionate about it, and I have no idea whether or not it gets made.

Finally, for those who don’t know, Joss Whedon did a brief run on the comics, and since Whedon is obviously now a major player at Marvel Studios, I asked if the two had ever talked about the comics: