Fans of Brian K. Vaughan’s Paper Girls comics may be excited to know that a TV series featuring your favorite Midwestern newsies of the late 1980s is in development. The comic series just wrapped up in July of 2019, making it ripe for an adaptation with an end game in sight. Given that Vaughan has joked about how we’ll never see a Saga adaptation unless it’s got Lin Manuel Miranda on board (and how many fans would beg them to take their money to do that?), it’s very exciting to have the Paper Girls series on the way.
There are 30 issues of Paper Girls, which means it could be a lengthy series if it’s a hit. There are loads of adventurous, thrilling, and even scary chapters of the source material to work through in the sci-fi series, which also gives it the potential to be taken even further down the road.
It’s Based On The Brian K. Vaughan Comics
If you watch The Runaways, you’re familiar with Brian K. Vaughan’s work. Vaughan is an extraordinarily talented writer known for hits like Y: The Last Man and the incredible Harvey and Hugo Award-winning Saga series alongside the marvelous Fiona Staples.
Fans have already seen Vaughan’s series The Runaways brought to life on Hulu, and Legendary Entertainment just announced that they’ll be making his Ex Machina series into a movie as well. FX has been working on adapting Y: The Last Man into a series for quite a while, with Vaughan suggesting there’s a target to premiere the series in 2020. The prolific Vaughan, who announced he and Staples would be taking a break from Saga in 2019, is also writing a Gundam series for Legendary.
Prime has become a solid contender among producers of compelling and even award-winning media, from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. There’s definitely a gap in teen programming, which means that Paper Girls, which is highly rated among both parents and teens at Common Sense Media, is coming at a great time. The comic’s action and incredible and even spooky sci-fi elements, coupled with its ability to tackle real issues of the time, will make it interesting for adults, too.
Paper Girls Is About A Quartet Of… Paper Girls
The series centers around four girls who deliver newspapers in the late 1980s: Erin Tieng, MacKenzie “Mac” Coyle, Karina “KJ” J, and Tiffany Quilkin. They are all 12 years old and live in the suburbs just outside of Cleveland. Erin is the “new kid” and is just befriending the other three paper girls when all of the sci-fi excitement hits town.
It’s A Coming-Of-Age Sci-Fi Story
Like some of the best programming that takes place in the 1980s, Paper Girls is a coming-of-age story that deals with themes like bullying and homophobia, but it takes place in a unique sci-fi setting, giving it a much broader territory.
Many fans have compared Paper Girls to Stranger Things, and while there are definitely many similarities, Paper Girls was not only released a year before the hit Netflix show, but it also strays into far stranger territory. Paper Girls still has fun nods to the ’80s and attitudes of four paper delivery girls, but there is also time travel, futuristic devices, and more violence.
Stephany Folsom Is Writing The Pilot
There Will Be Big Changes
Vaughan said, “The story will have to change for TV, but we’re going to keep the heart of the comic.” This is a given in just about any sci-fi adaptation. A limitless budget and special effects that don’t yet exist would be required to cover the scope of the series as it stands, so there will need to be some cuts or at least adaptations, made.
Many fans are wondering about the show’s parental guidelines. While many teens enjoy the Paper Girls comics, there are definitely some scenes that could be rated more maturely if fully realized for television. These may be some of the changes that Vaughan meant.
Dev Patel Is Being Looked At For Grandfather
The role of Grandfather will go to Dev Patel, if co-creator Cliff Chiang has his way. Grandfather is the leader of the “Old-Timers,” the oldest time travelers who want to keep the timeline as true to its original form as possible.
Like most of the characters, he’s a complicated fellow who could be characterized in several ways. Grandfather will have a big role to play that includes plenty of action and strange speaking parts due to the language of the Old-Timers.
We could certainly see Patel issue orders while lounging around in a Public Enemy t-shirt.
The Characters Confront Their Future Selves
This is NOT “Stranger Things with girls,” as many are likely going to dub it. Sure, there are monsters, but there’s also time travel, aliens, an epic war, rich symbolism and plenty of opportunities to say, “OK, boomer.” One of the major themes of the coming-of-age story is that of man vs. self, or in this case, paper girl vs. grown-up self from the future, as the girls will have to face their own future selves.
Once the cast has been revealed, expect to see at least two people cast per each main character, one to represent the character from the 1980s and another for the future version.
Paper Girls Takes On The Good And Bad Of The 80s
Rather than blanketing the series in rose-tinted nostalgia à la Stranger Things, Vaughan’s comic tackles some major issues, so it is likely the adaptation will do the same.
Vaughan said, “I remember a lot of aspects of that era fondly, but it also felt like, wow, there’s a lot of fiction now about the 1980s that completely whitewashes a lot of the worst aspects of it. The casual hatred and homophobia was so pervasive.”
Paper Girls should provide a more authentic look at the 1980s, showing the good and the bad.
Vaughan Wants Complete Unknowns For The Cast
Creator Brian K. Vaughan has stated that he wants a cast largely made up of unknown actors, which could work out quite well for a series intended to be the next Stranger Things. Many of the young actors in the Netflix series have shot into stardom, starring in everything from the It films to the Godzilla franchise to the latest incarnation of the Ghostbusters.
Everyone has their favorite actors, but since this series will feature four 12-year-old girls at its front, it probably is best to find new, young actors to fulfill their roles. This should not only keep the kids looking more realistic but also allow them room to grow in the series.
