Runaways: Was Amy's death tied to Gibborim?

Among its many departures from the 2003 comics on which the Hulu series is based, Marvel’s Runaways introduced a brand new character in its season premiere — well, sort of.

Upon meeting the titular Runaways, viewers discovered that the group had been torn apart two years prior after the death of Nico’s (Lyrica Okano) sister Amy, a character of the show’s creation who was not in the comics. Amy’s mysterious death also occurred on the night of a Pride meeting, a fact at least one Runaway was suspicious of considering they just witnessed their parents ostensibly murder Destiny.

“Nico is connecting the same thoughts that you are, like, ‘Is this coincidence or what?'” executive producer Stephanie Savage tells EW.

In fact, now that Nico has Amy’s diary, she will start to piece together the puzzle much sooner than expected, but that doesn’t mean resolution is in the cards. “When Amy passed, Tina [Brittany Ishibashi] and Robert [James Yaegashi] grew distant from her,” Okano says. “She was like, ‘You know what, I’m okay with that. I’m pretty sure you guys had something to do with it anyway. You guys aren’t telling me something, and I’m just going to have to figure it out on my own.’ Obviously, Tina and Robert both know something, and Nico has no idea, but definitely it ties in with the bigger picture of The Pride. Viewers will get answers [by the end of the season], but Nico never does.”

How Amy’s death ties into the bigger mystery of the season remains to be seen, but executive producer Josh Schwartz cites a bigger reason for the character’s existence in the series. “The impetus for the Amy story is really about the emotional connection of these characters, these kids,” Schwartz says. “While we loved the setup in the book, we felt like we had the opportunity in translating it to a television show to go a bit deeper with their relationship and their backstory, and this idea that they once were close and this tragedy that happened in the group — plus high school and the cliques and people kind of going their own way in high school — have led to the group breaking apart. So we felt like Amy’s death is really going to be driving a big part of the emotional side of the story for a while.”

A new episode of Marvel’s Runaways will be released Tuesdays on Hulu.