The following excerpts are from a roundtable interview that took place at New York Comic Con in October…
On Marvel’s Runaways, which returns for its second season this Friday, December 21, on Hulu, one of the many aspects that makes the titular group of teens feel like an actual family is the sense of history that influences all of their interactions. Every member of the team has a unique and lived-in relationship with every other member, including some contentious relationships, such as that between technology-inclined jock Chase Stein and brainy nerd Alex Wilder.
While speaking to Chase actor Gregg Sulkin at New York Comic Con, Flickering Myth asked him about his on and off-screen relationship with Alex actor Rhenzy Feliz, to which Sulkin enthusiastically replied, “I love it! Me and Rhenzy are like best friends. He’s my brother, I love him. I think he’s grown so much as a person over the last few years, he’s a superstar in the making for sure. He already, kind of, carries himself like one, but he is, he’s so good. So to be able to work with, one, a very good actor, two, your best friend, and to be angry with your best friend and you get paid for it, it’s one of the best jobs in the entire world. So it’s been so much fun.”
On the two character’s dynamic this season, Sulkin stated, “Alex & Chase will butt heads, but I think the one thing that Chase and Alex have to figure out is, when you work in life you don’t always love your colleague, and you have to figure out a way to work together and team up and work for the greater good. And I think that’s what Chase and Alex are gonna go through this season, which is like, ‘Bro, I don’t like you’ and ‘Bro, I don’t like you either,’ but we have to figure this out. We have to figure this out for society, and we also have to figure it out for each other. There’s only six people [who] are in on this, and so it’s important that two of them get on. But, personalities clash, especially when you’re a teenager… it’s tough for these characters for sure. But it’s so much fun, honestly. We just have the best time.”
Season 2 will also show the growth of Chase, who Sulkin claims is “confused,” “frustrated” and “finding out who he is and who he is when it comes to the Runaways, too,” after his father, Victor, nearly killed him, only to be shot by his mother, Janet, out of protection, toward the end of last season. Talking about Chase, Sulkin shared, “You know you have those moments in life, I had it personally this year as a human being, you have those moments where you look in the mirror and you’re like, ‘Wow, I am a different human being.’ And I think that’s going to be Chase at some points in season 2, where he’s going to look at himself and be like, ‘What has happened to my life, and it’s up to me now to become the person that I want to become for this situation.'”
Sulkin may be playing a teenager on Runaways, but in real life, at the age of 26, the actor has quite a number of impressive credits under his belt, arguably having had the most prolific career out of his five co-stars before signing onto the show. Longtime fans will know Sulkin from playing a love interest of Selena Gomez’s Alex on Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place, as well as roles on such teen-friendly programming as Pretty Little Liars and Faking It. As for what’s next for Sulkin, the young actor shared a conclusion he came to after performing in some of the more special effects/stunt-heavy Runaways scenes.
“I would like to do a lot more action-comedy in my career. I think [the show has] really encouraged me to do it, I think it’s been a lot of fun, I think it’s been challenging. It’s been, doing stunts… you know, I felt like Tom Cruise this season. It’s been great.”
SEE ALSO: Marvel’s Runaways cast and showrunner talk about returning for “a whole new show” in season 2
Watch Chase and Alex butt heads, as season 2 kicks off with the Allison Liddi-Brown-directed and Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage-written, “Gimme Shelter.”
Justin Cook
