If you’ve ever thought, “What if superheroes weren’t so concerned with keeping ordinary citizens and cities safe and instead were more interested in doing bad things?” Well, then Amazon Prime’s new show, The Boys, premiering July 26th will fit the bill you’ve been looking for.
During the Friday press conference, series creator Eric Kripke and the cast, led by fan favorite Karl Urban (Dredd, Thor: Ragnarok) talked what type of world they’ve brought to the table and what fans can expect from the 8 episode first season that was adapted from Derek Robertson’s book of the same name.
As mentioned earlier, The Boys takes place in a world where superheroes are real and far from the leaders/paragons of virtue we’ve read in other stories. Ordinary citizens have taken a disliking to the supers (A-Train, Queen Maeve, Black Noir, etc.). Billy Butcher, played by Urban, assembles a task force to take on the supreme forces in an attempt to tip the scale back in society’s favor, by keeping the powers in check so to speak.
When asked about what about the show spoke to him the most, Urban said, “The idea of ‘taking on the man,’ it channels current events and is quite timely.” In regards to his character, Urban commented, “Billy Butcher crosses a few moral lines pretty much everyday which is a lot of fun to work with.”
The Amazon series will play specifically to mature audiences — complete with foul-mouthed dialogue, and intense graphic violence. Series creator Eric Kripke (Supernatural) was quick to point out that while the violence does set the tone for the series it is not essential to the storytelling. For example, the speedster character A-Train runs through people instead of avoiding them to prevent bodily harm. This violent acts leads to the beginning of a journey for another character.
“It has to be important for the story and to advance the character or we can’t tell the story without it. If it’s there just to shock then we will kill the pitch,” said Kripke.
Early reactions have given praise to The Boys (which streams July 26th) and Amazon has already green-lit a second season.
Kripke closed the conference with a quick summary as well as a real life sting which will undoubtedly be the type of humor brought into the show, “What we’re really trying to show is brutally realistic version of superheroes that insecure, fucked up, and self serving as real humans would be if given superpowers. Like a bunch of super Bill Cosby’s. Is that too soon?”
The Boys premieres of Amazon Prime on Friday August 26.
