It was announced last July that Amazon Prime Video was set to deliver a live-action series adaptation of Bryan K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s Image Comics series ‘Paper Girls’. There have been no further updates, until now. Co-showrunner Christopher Cantwell tweeted a photo of his binder of “Daily Room Notes.” So it’s… coming along.
I’m always misplacing my glasses in the writers room, so I finally got a string to wear them around my neck.
Very “old man” I know, but I can get away with it as a co-showrunner (of a new TV series with Rogers and brilliant writer Steph Folsom, based on a stellar BKV comic). pic.twitter.com/nXTPRwfnul
— Christopher Cantwell (@ifyoucantwell) June 30, 2020
Cantwell previously created the AMC series ‘Halt and Catch Fire’. Stephany Folsom is co-writing along with Vaughan. Folsom scripted two episodes of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ series, also coming from Prime Video. She also contributed to the script for ‘Toy Story 4’.
A few hours after 1988 Halloween night, four 12-year old girls have to face a mission. Trapped in a complicated conflict, they will travel in time to save the world.
‘Paper Girls’ is baaaaasically ‘Stranger Things’ but with four girls instead of boys as the focus. It definitely develops its own personality (and involves aliens and– like the description says– time travel), but at least in the beginning, it definitely gives off a ‘Stranger Things’ vibes. And I mean that in a good way!
The main characters in the book are Erin Tieng, who tends to be the most maternal of the gang; MacKenzie “Mac” Coyle, who is the badass (She SMOKES! And SWEARS!) and she was also the first female papergirl in their town of Stony Stream (a fictional suburb of Cleveland, Ohio); Karina “KJ” J., the brainy one, who over the course of their adventures, realizes she is a lesbian; and Tiffany Quilkin, the techie– she supplies the gang with walkie talkies and loves video games.
The series lasted for 30 issues, published between 2015 and 2019.
Another of Vaughan’s comics, ‘Y: The Last Man’ is also in development as a live-action series and is set to be released via FX on Hulu. His Marvel series, ‘Runaways’ was previously adapted as a Hulu original series, however that show took a LOT of liberties with the source material. Hopefully, ‘Paper Girls’ will be more faithful.
Check back for updates as they arrive!