The Boys (franchise)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Boys is an American media franchise set in a world where superpowered people, called Supes, are cheered as heroes by the public. Behind the cheering sits Vought International, a powerful corporation. It markets the Supes, monetizes them and, in secret, creates them. Away from their heroic personas, most of these celebrities turn out to be selfish and corrupt. That gap between the polished image and the ugly reality drives everything that follows. This documentary asks how a comic book that switched publishers midway grew into live-action shows, cartoons, a podcast and fake corporate news broadcasts. It asks why an earlier plan to make a film stalled for years. And it asks what rules the television writers set for themselves once a network finally said yes. The answer begins on the printed page.

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• 2. Comic Roots

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  In October 2006, WildStorm, an imprint of DC Comics, began publishing The Boys, created by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson. That first run lasted only until January 2007, when the series was cancelled. Dynamite Entertainment then took it over and published it from February 2007 until November 2012.

  During Dynamite's run, spin-off stories appeared under the titles Herogasm, Highland Laddie and Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker. They were first known simply by those names. For the omnibus re-release, they were rebranded as regular volumes of The Boys.

  The comic kept growing even after it ended. Once the television adaptation was under way at Amazon Prime Video, an eight-issue epilogue series called Dear Becky was published between June and November 2020. All 98 issues of the comic have also been adapted faithfully into seven full cast audiobooks by GraphicAudio, starting in May 2020. Together the audiobooks run 31 hours.

  Long before any of that audio existed, Hollywood had already tried to turn the comic into a film.

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• 3. Development Hell

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  In February 2008, Columbia Pictures optioned the then-ongoing comic for a film, with Neal H. Moritz set to produce. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi were hired to write the screenplay. In August 2010, director Adam McKay said he had signed on. He told an interviewer: "They already have a script and we're doing a rewrite on it so hopefully getting the whole thing into shape in the Fall with maybe a shoot happening in January."

  McKay also floated casting ideas. He was interested in Russell Crowe as Billy Butcher and Simon Pegg as Hughie, and he wanted to shoot in 3D. None of it happened. In February 2012, Columbia reported that it had dropped its option, though McKay replied on Twitter that Paramount Pictures had picked the project up. On the 30th of April 2013, Paramount hired Manfredi and Hay to write the film. The project then entered development hell, and it lingered in various stages between 2008 and 2016.

  Television proved a better fit. Reports placed Cinemax behind a series adaptation, developed by Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen. Kripke was set to write while Goldberg and Rogen would direct. Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson were named co-executive producers. The production companies included Point Grey Pictures, Original Film and Sony Pictures Television.

  On the 8th of November 2017, Amazon gave the production a series order for a first season of eight episodes. The creative team stayed attached. Months later, on the 30th of April 2018, Dan Trachtenberg was announced as director of the first episode, replacing Rogen and Goldberg, who had scheduling conflicts. Simon Pegg's connection to the character of Hughie would outlast the film, in a way nobody had planned.

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• 4. Five Seasons

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  On the 19th of July 2019, at San Diego Comic-Con, Amazon announced a second season of The Boys. The first season had not even premiered yet. It arrived a week later, on the 26th of July 2019, with an ensemble cast led by Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Karl Urban and Antony Starr.

  The story opens with Hughie Campbell, whose girlfriend Robin is accidentally killed by the speedster A-Train. Billy Butcher recruits Hughie into the Boys, a team of vigilantes who hunt Supes that abuse their abilities. Meanwhile, the Seven, Vought's flagship superhero group, welcome Annie January, a hopeful young heroine who has to face the truth about those she admires. Butcher clashes with the Seven's violent and unstable leader, the Homelander. Both men also face Vought executives, including Madelyn Stillwell, CEO Stan Edgar and Edgar's daughter Victoria Neuman. Eventually Homelander's father, Soldier Boy, enters the picture.

  Kripke set firm ground rules. To keep his writers disciplined and the show grounded, he told them about the drug behind the powers: "Anything that comes out of this drug is viable, and anything that doesn't we're not allowed to do". He also refused the overused habit of killing female characters to motivate the heroes. Instead he saw a chance to surprise comic readers by changing the story of Butcher's wife, Becky.

  The second season, with eight episodes, premiered on the 4th of September 2020. Kripke had started writing its scripts just before the first season aired, and all eight were finished by November 2019. He called the process a lot of tiptoeing around expectations for a hit's sophomore outing. The season explored white nationalism, white supremacy, systemic racism and xenophobia. That gave him the opening to introduce Stormfront, a racist superhero who also supports Nazism. Unlike the comic, where Stormfront is male, the series made the character a woman. Kripke described the goal as "Homelander's worst nightmare that would be a strong woman who wasn't afraid of him and proceeded to steal his spotlight." Colby Minifie and Aya Cash joined the main cast that season.

  On the 23rd of July 2020, at an aftershow hosted by Aisha Tyler for Comic-Con@Home, Amazon renewed the show for a third season. Filming began in early 2021. Kripke announced that the sixth episode would adapt the miniseries Herogasm, which centers on superhero orgy festivals, and would share its name. He said that episode had "the craziest dailies" he had ever seen. Soldier Boy followed a different path from the comic. Rather than the incompetent modern-day successor, he became a World War II-era figure, described as "Homelander before Homelander." Claudia Doumit and Jensen Ackles joined the cast, and the season premiered on the 3rd of June 2022.

  Amazon renewed the show for a fourth season on the 10th of June 2022. That season premiered on the 13th of June 2024, adding Cameron Crovetti, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The fifth and final season, with Daveed Diggs joining, began on the 8th of April 2026 with two episodes. The rest arrived weekly until the finale on the 20th of May. Both critics and audiences had embraced the franchise's debut, and its commercial success made new branches possible.

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• 5. Spin-Off Screens

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  At the 2021 CCXP Worlds panel for Prime Video in Brazil, executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg announced an animated anthology called The Boys Presents: Diabolical. They likened it to The Animatrix. It would hold eight new stories, created by Awkwafina, Garth Ennis, Eliot Glazer and Ilana Glazer, Goldberg and Rogen, Simon Racioppa, Justin Roiland and Ben Bayouth, Andy Samberg, and Aisha Tyler.

  Kripke said the idea came out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The producers wanted something to release during the long wait for the third season. Restrictions had shut down most live-action productions, so they tried an anthology that used many different animation forms and styles. A teaser trailer in February 2022 revealed several key cast members. Simon Pegg voiced Hughie Campbell, the character long associated with him. He could not play Hughie in live action, having aged too much by the time the series was made. The anthology premiered in full on the 4th of March 2022.

  In September 2020, Amazon fast-tracked a college-set spin-off, first titled The Boys Presents: Varsity, after the ratings success of the second season. It was described as part college show and part Hunger Games. Writer Craig Rosenberg led it. On the 2nd of October 2020, Kripke said it would center on the G-Men, a team first mentioned in the first season and created as a parody of Marvel's X-Men. A ticker tape in the second season said the group was undergoing a version of the #MeToo movement called "#G-Too". The series loosely adapts "We Gotta Go Now", the fourth volume of the comic.

  Amazon ordered the series on the 27th of September 2021, with Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters as showrunners. Filming began in May 2022 at the University of Toronto, then moved to the Claireville Conservation Area in Brampton in July. That month the show was officially retitled Gen V. Led by Jaz Sinclair, it follows young adult Supes at Godolkin University School of Crimefighting, a school run by Vought. It premiered on the 29th of September 2023. Amazon renewed it for a second season that October. Sean Patrick Thomas and Hamish Linklater joined for season two in 2025. In April 2026, the series was canceled after those two seasons.

  Two more live-action series are in production. Vought Rising, announced at 2024 San Diego Comic-Con, is a prequel set in the 1950s. It follows a twisted murder mystery about Vought's origins, the early exploits of Soldier Boy and the maneuvers of Stormfront. Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash return in those roles, with Mason Dye playing Bombsight, and the series is expected to premiere in 2027. On the 28th of November 2023, Amazon announced The Boys: Mexico. Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer is creating it, and Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal will produce and star.

  Kripke has said further spin-offs are in early development. He also revealed that the television side of the franchise has been called the "VCU" internally, short for "Vought Cinematic Universe".

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• 6. Vought Online

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  On the 2nd of August 2019, a promotional short film appeared on Twitter with Karl Urban back as Billy Butcher. Titled Mr. Butcher, it shows him visiting an elementary school as a guest speaker. His lesson for the children is to fear and distrust Supes, especially Homelander and the Seven.

  A companion short, Butcher, arrived on the 10th of September 2020. It sits between the first and second seasons, in the aftermath of the episode "You Found Me". Butcher evades the authorities after being framed for Madelyn Stillwell's murder. He reaches out to Jock, an old friend from the Royal Marines, played by David S. Lee.

  On the 5th of June 2021, the Vought International YouTube channel began releasing in-universe videos. The first was "Starlight - Never Truly Vanish (Official Music Video)". The channel presents itself as a propaganda mouthpiece for Vought's corporate wing, managing the public-relations disasters caused by its Supes. It posts between seasons and between episodes, and it passed one million subscribers during the fifth and final season of The Boys.

  The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the third season, so Prime Video filled the gap with news reports from the fictional Vought News Network. Called Seven on 7 with Cameron Coleman, the first segment appeared on the 7th of July 2021. Each of the first seven segments contained seven stories teasing upcoming episodes and introducing new cast members. Two more videos followed, one during the third season and one on the 28th of September 2022, just before Gen V premiered. Matthew Edison, who plays anchor Cameron Coleman, later appeared in seasons three and four of The Boys and the first season of Gen V.

  Starting on the 28th of July 2022, Chace Crawford appeared in character as The Deep in Deep Thoughts With The Deep. In each installment, the character delivers what he considers wisdom, along with personal musings. Only four videos were made, and the last came out on the 28th of March 2026, shortly before the fifth season.

  The Deep also got his own audio spin-off. On the 8th of June 2022, Audible announced an Audible Original podcast, secretly produced and released the very next day. The Boys: Deeper and Deeper, written by Matt Berns and directed by Chris Sacco, stars Chace Crawford and Katy Breier as Kevin "The Deep" Kohler and his wife, Cassandra Schwartz. The couple sit down for a "no-holds-barred podcast interview" about their relationship, their escape from the Church of the Collective, and their memoir and its film adaptation. Leigh Bush plays interviewer Hailey Miller and later appeared in season three of the series. The podcast received a positive critical reception.

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• 7. Crossovers and Merchandise

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  On the 4th of February 2019, the YouTube channel ScrewAttack was rebranded as Death Battle, named after its signature series. In Death Battle!, pop culture icons are researched and then pitted against each other in a fight to the death. Examples include RoboCop against the T-800 Terminator and Optimus Prime against the RX-78 2 Gundam. The hosts are Wiz, a mad scientist with a robotic arm, and Boomstick, a country man with a shotgun for a leg.

  In 2020, Amazon Prime Video sponsored two promotional episodes to advertise the second season of The Boys. They staged a battle royale between the Seven and Billy Butcher. Nathan Mitchell returned as Black Noir, who joined as a guest host, while impersonators voiced the other characters. Noir then became a recurring supporting character. A further promotion in 2022 pitted Homelander, voiced by Yong Yea, against Omni-Man from another Prime Video superhero series, Invincible.

  On the 3rd of October 2020, Eric Kripke said that the in-universe adult film scenes glimpsed in the second-season episode "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker" had been shot in full. He wanted to release them as a web series called Supe Porn, on a website of that name registered to Sony Pictures. He supposedly asked Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Antony Starr and his Twitter followers to petition Prime Video and Amazon Studios for permission.

  The website took on its own life in the third season. After the episode "Glorious Five Year Plan", SupePorn.com became a fictional online store selling the Supe-themed toys seen in that episode. In the next episode, the site appeared as the place where the character Crimson Countess ran her cam business. A message at the bottom of the site says it is for entertainment only and nothing is for sale.

  Physical goods did arrive. Funko released Pop! Vinyl figures of Queen Maeve, A-Train, Billy Butcher, Hughie Campbell, Starlight, Homelander and Translucent in 2020, and a figure of the Deep in 2022.

  In June 2021, a rumor said a tie-in video game was in early development. In 2026, The Boys: Trigger Warning, a virtual reality game made with Sony, was released. Players take the role of Lucas Costa, a Vought IT technician who joins the Boys. He wants revenge on the Armstrongs, a Supe sitcom family, using powers he gained after being injected with Compound V to save his life.

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• 8. Sound and Recognition

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  At the 2019 Comic-Con, composer Christopher Lennertz said that scoring The Boys was the "craziest thing" he had ever done. That came after he had worked with Seth Rogen on Sausage Party. Score albums were released for every season of the series.

  On the 22nd of July 2019, the metal band Slipknot released a single called "Solway Firth". Its music video featured clips and audio from the show.

  The second season brought original songs. Erin Moriarty sang her own vocals for "Never Truly Vanish", which earned an Emmy nomination. Jessie T. Usher performed an original song called "Faster", and its music video reached YouTube on the 1st of September 2021. The third season's soundtrack included Miles Gaston Villanueva performing "You've Got a License to Drive (Me Crazy)" and "Rock My Kiss". Laurie Holden performed "America's Son", and these were released on the 3rd of June 2022.

  The awards record shows how widely the franchise was noticed. At the 2021 Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards, entries included Karl Urban for best actor in a streaming drama, Aya Cash for best actress and Giancarlo Esposito for best supporting actor. The Creative Arts Emmys in 2020 and 2021 list categories for sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects and original music and lyrics. Rebecca Sonnenshine appears for writing the episode "What I Know" in the Primetime Emmy listings, and the series is listed for Outstanding Drama Series. Diabolical shows up in animation categories at the Emmys, the Hollywood Critics Association and the Saturn Awards. In 2022, the Saturns also listed Jensen Ackles for a guest-starring performance in a streaming series. On the 17th of June 2022, a video appeared for another Laurie Holden song, "Chimps Don't Cry".

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