Amazon Studios From IMBD
Aisha Tyler facilitated the panel for Amazon’s The Boys. The panel included Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara, Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Jessie T. Usher, and Elisabeth Shue. Amazon announced prior to the panel that the show which will debut on July 26, has already been renewed for a second season, which shows Amazon’s confidence in the reception it will receive.
If you check out my previous post reviewing the trailers you can see that this is not your typical superhero troupe. Writer Eric Kripke stated that the concept for the show “…started with wanting to take the piss out of the superhero genre a little bit, to turn it over on its head.” Based on the trailers and show description it looks like they’ve definitely done that, starting with the title of the show. The Boys, instead of being the super powered leads, “are the blue-collar 99 percent, and in one way or another they’ve been f**ked over … as collateral damage not given a second thought. They’ve suffered personally either at the hands of Vought, or the superheroes, but what makes them different is they’ve decided to fight back against the 1 percent of the 1 percent,” Kripke states.
As seen in the previews, Karl Urban’s character, Billy Butcher leads The Boys in their fight for revenge against the most powerful supers. Speaking about what he believes Butcher’s motivation to be Urban said, “The thing that’s driving Butcher is he’s got an ax to grind. He’s on a mission of justice, vengeance — he has a vendetta against Homelander for something he’s done to him.” Kripke stated , “The show is really about what happens when you use celebrity to manipulate people, and use your power to make the common guy play against his own self-interests.”
The Boys is based on a comic book series by the same name, written and illustrated by Garth Ennis and Darick Robinson. The original concept in the comic was that The Boys was a CIA unit tasked with monitoring the actions of the supers. It appears that while the titular characters are now civilians, the general theme of heroes corrupted by their celebrity remains. Ennis traditionally has had a anti superhero twist to his writing and that theme continues with The Boys.
It sounds as though the female supers also get to step outside of the typical roles held by females in the superhero genre. Elizabeth Shue indicated that she plays Madeline Stillwell, a character “drunk with power”. Erin Moriarty, who plays Annie January, stated that her character plays against the typical role of being a love interest, “You think that’s what my character is going to be, and she’s not.”
Karen Fukuhara, who plays Female, stated that she loves the role she gets to play as both a heart breaker and someone capable of ripping out eyes. She also stated that in season 2, which has already begun filming, she gets to do much more wire work.
I love how music plays a role in many of the superhero shows now days and it seems that The Boys will be no different. Kripke indicated that the music is very punk rock and serves as another character in the show. With season 2 already in production, I’m looking forward to where this show is going.
Follow me on IG @craig_and_dem_reviews for more randomness.
Depending on how the show goes, I may do my own review of it. The Seven are the kind of “heroes” that Stain from My Hero Academia wouldn’t hesitate to kill.
Cool. Yea I just finished HunterXHunter and the second season of One Punch Man. Hero Academia is next on my list. I’ll be interested to see the parallels.