These are the young women [in Stand by Me] that we grew up knowing and hopefully they feel a little rough around the edges, because it's true to life.

Some people are haunted by their pasts, but not my family. I mean, how can you be haunted by something that never really dies?

I'm just grateful to finally be telling a story with all females at the lead.

We're always looking roughly 30 years behind us. In the '80s they were obsessed with the '50s and so on.

After 9/11, I knew I wanted to write about power and identity and the way Americans on all sides of the political spectrum often mythologize our leaders, which are themes that the superhero genre has always handled really well.

I am a big theater fan. It's mostly just being pretentious, I think, and trying to look smart.

I realized that for fantasy and science fiction, especially from my youth, white was the default. Luke Skywalker was in the lead, or even if you were a hobbit, you're going to be white. That was an extremely old-fashioned, obviously really narrow-minded way to look at things.