WILMINGTON — A locally filmed series from the “Outer Banks” creators officially has a debut date and a trailer. “The Runarounds” will be available to stream on Amazon Prime on Sept. 1.
READ MORE: The Runarounds make local debut, 9 months after shooting pilot episode with ‘OBX’ creator
The trailer dropped Thursday and not only highlights sites across Wilmington, it also features new music from the show’s featured band — a five-piece of real-life musicians made up of William Lipton, Axel Ellis, Zende Murdock, Jesse Golliher, and Jeremy Yun. Available for streaming now are two new songs from The Runarounds, including the alternative edgy rock of “Senior Year” and the catchy pop-rock of “Funny How the Universe Works.”
According to one of the show’s creators, Jonas Pate, the band will drop a self-titled album to coincide with the series debut. Plus, The Runarounds have a tour planned and will perform at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater mid-September.
“The Runarounds” is the latest young adult series from the “Outer Banks” crew — also including Jonas’ brother, Joshua, and Shannon Burke. It’s part of Amazon’s latest young-adult content, another of which includes “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” which also filmed in the greater Wilmington area. It’s final season dropped July 16.
Pate’s show centers on a group of high-schoolers who decide after graduation they want to give music stardom a go by creating “love songs that change the world” — a refrain that envelops the trailer’s story arc.
“I’m not going to college, this band is do or die, it’s got to work,” says Lipton, “General Hospital” alum who performs as lead singer Charlie Cooper in the show.
The group of musicians were brought together at first through a casting call to perform in a wedding scene for “Outer Banks” season three, but Pate and creators always had the goal to create a music-based show around the group.
The Runarounds toured throughout the states in 2022 and 2023, which included local performances at area venues like Bourgie Nights and Palm Room and in Raleigh’s Cat’s Cradle. The band even worked with Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison on an EP to help further solidify their sound.
Pate shot “The Runarounds” pilot in Wilmington in fall 2022, which was picked up by Amazon MGM and cameras rolled again for all eight episodes last year. The trailer includes highlights of the area, from the beach to historic downtown, New Hanover High School to Eagle’s Dare.
It also features a good amount of screen time for Pate’s daughter, Lilah, whose character is Sophie — a songwriting muse and love interest to Charlie.
“I felt like Taylor Swift for half a second,” she says in the trailer, as the band takes one of her lyrics into the recording studio.
The show follows The Runarounds rise to fame as they hit the road in a school bus marked “‘Wilmington High School,” garner millions of fans and learn the ropes of what it means to be in a rock band, fall in love, party, and come of age in all of its mad-hatter glory.
Season two has yet to be greenlit, but Pate told PCD last year that followup seasons would likely parallel the group’s real-life encounters with industry stalwarts and hitting the road: “We have big ambitions for where the story goes, but the first season is kind of like the beginning.”
The series also stars Maximo Salas, Kelley Pereira, Marley Aliah, Mark Wystrach, Brooklyn Decker, Hayes MacArthur and Shea Pritchard.
Aside from the Pates and Burke, other executive producers include Joon Yun, David Wilcox, Josh Pate, Scott Lambert, Lisa Mae Fincannon, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Matt Thunell.
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