Power Pack Movie Is Back on at Marvel?

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12 years after Marvel used the rights to Power Pack as collateral in a deal that lead to the origins of Marvel Studios, the blockbuster studio is reportedly revisiting that property. A new report claims that, while we may be a ways off from a Power Pack movie actually happening, steps are being taken to put the movie into development, with longtime Marvel Studios executive Jonathan Schwartz being given executive oversight on the film. Jonathan Schwartz has been working for Marvel since 2009, where he first started as an assistant to Kevin Feige on Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, before being elevated to a producer on Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the upcoming Captain Marvel.

The news comes from That Hashtag Show, which reports that the studio is looking to make a "Spy Kids-like story" that follows the Power family The comics were created by writer Louise Simonson and artist June Brigman, who debuted with their own series in 1984, which ran for 64 issues. This team was the first team of pre-teen heroes in the Marvel Universe and the first to completely operate without any sort of adult supervision. Despite its short run of just 62 issues, the property developed and retained a cult following, that lead to a re-launch of the property in 2005, although that series took place in a different continuity, aimed at younger readers.

The comic centers on the four siblings of the Power family, Alex (12), Julie (10), Jack (8) and Katie Power (5), who lived with their parents in a Virginia beach house. Their father, James Power, was a brilliant physicist who came up with a way to create energy from antimatter through a converter that he created. There was a fatal flaw in his design, though, and James was warned by Aelfyre "Whitey" Whitemane, a member of the Kymellian race, whose home planet had been destroyed through a similar error. While trying to warn the Power family, Whitey was mortally wounded as the Kymellian's rivals, the Snarks, kidnapped James Power and his wife Margaret, with Whitey rescuing the children and telling them what happened to their parents, and also passing along his super powers to them before he died.

The powers manifest for each child in different ways, with Alex controlling gravity, Julie given the ability to fly incredibly fast, Jack given the ability to change an object's mass and density, while Katie was given the ability to create and manipulate energy fields. All of these children are also given the ability to swap these powers with one another. Back in 2010, when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was promoting Iron Man 2, he mentioned a Power Pack movie as a possible adaptation for the studio, along with other properties such as Doctor Strange, which was released in 2016, Luke Cage, which was released as a Marvel Netflix TV series in 2017, and Ka-Zar, which hasn't been featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe quite yet.

It's possible that this could be developed for the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 lineup, which will kick off with Spider-Man: Homecoming 2, slated for release on July 5, 2019, just two months after the final Phase 3 movie, Avengers 4. Marvel has also set aside a trio of dates in 2020 (May 1, 2020, August 7, 2020 and November 6, 2020), but it seems highly-unlikely that Power Pack movie will be ready in time to hit any of those dates, since there isn't even a writer or a director in place yet. Still, for fans who have waited since 2005 to see the Power Pack on the big screen, it may become a reality within the next few years.