Time travel and the ’80s? No, it’s not a return to Russian Doll‘s second season, or a Stranger Things spinoff. This is Paper Girls, Amazon’s new series based on the comics by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, and it looks excellent. There are nigh-inevitable Stand By Me and Goonies vibes here, but there’s also so much more going on, including a flustered Ali Wong, an ominous pink sky, and the terrifying robots of the future. (You know, the surveillance ones people already have in their houses.)
This trailer follows awfully quickly on last week’s teaser, which is worth watching as it has a few quick bits that aren’t in the full trailer. (Both, though, end on a perfect moment.)
Vaughan (Y: The Last Man) and Chiang’s comic series began in 2015 and ran for four years, winning several Eisner Awards along the way. Amazon sums up the adaptation like this:
In the early morning hours after Halloween 1988, four paper girls—Erin, Mac, Tiffany, and KJ—are out on their delivery route when they become caught in the crossfire between warring time-travelers, changing the course of their lives forever. Transported into the future, these girls must figure out a way to get back home to the past, a journey that will bring them face-to-face with the grown-up versions of themselves. While reconciling that their futures are far different than their 12-year-old selves imagined, they are being hunted by a militant faction of time-travelers known as the Old Watch, who have outlawed time travel so that they can stay in power. In order to survive, the girls will need to overcome their differences and learn to trust each other, and themselves.
The four paper girls are played by Camryn Jones (Tiffany), Riley Lai Nelet (Erin), Sofia Rosinsky (Mac), and Fina Strazza (KJ). Wong plays grown-up Erin, and the rest of the adult cast includes Nate Corddry (For All Mankind) and Adina Porter (The 100). The series was created by Stephany Folsom, who was co-showrunner with Christopher C. Rogers until she left the show last year. Vaughan and Chiang are both executive producers.
All eight episodes of Paper Girls premiere July 29th on Prime Video.
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