If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.
The Boys is a superhero satire on today's politics and Donald Trump by accident, says showrunner, but "we had to run in that direction"
"I don't really have control over this," Eric Kripke says about the direction of Prime Video's superhero satire The Boys
Popverse's top stories
- Prepare to visit the MCU of 1,000 BC and meet a brand new Iron Fist in the new Marvel Black Panther spin-off series Eyes of Wakanda
- MEMBERS ONLY: What do Aggretsuko and Chainsaw Man have in common? They're both about how much capitalism sucks [Popverse Jump]
- Ranking the likelihood of each Jedi's death Charles Soule’s Star Wars: Trials of the Jedi book cover [Rebel Rouser]
How did Prime Video’s The Boys become one of the key political satires for the current era? If showrunner Eric Kripke is to be believed, by accident.
“It was really meant to be a celebrity satire, and it was going to be a satire of Hollywood,” Kripke said during an appearance at an Emmys For Your Consideration event; according to the showrunner, producer Seth Rogen’s pitch for the series was essentially, ‘What if Iron Man was Robert Downey Jr.?’ But then, during development on the show, things changed.
“Then Trump got elected [and we] had this observation of ‘Huh, this is at the intersection of authoritarianism and celebrity. Homelander is inherently fascist but has such stage presence,’” Kripke revealed. “And the minute we realized that, we were like, ‘Oh shit.’ I wish I could say I did it intentionally. I did not. But we stumbled onto the perfect metaphor for the moment, and we had to run in that direction as far as we could.”
Talking about the show’s fourth season finale — and the upcoming fifth and final season — Kripke said, “At the time, we were like, ‘Well, let’s make it a cautionary tale. Hopefully everyone will say, Whoo! We dodged that bullet.’ And then we all got hit with the bullet… I won’t spoil season five, but there’s a lot of stuff that we were writing in season five that has sort of already come to pass. People come up to me like, ‘Will you just please write a fucking happy ending?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t really have control over any of this.’”
The first four seasons of The Boys are available on Prime Video.
Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out Popverse's guides to:
Follow Popverse for upcoming event coverage and news
Find out how we conduct our review by reading our review policy
Let Popverse be your tour guide through the wilderness of pop culture
Sign in and let us help you find your new favorite thing.
Comments
Want to join the discussion? Please activate your account first.
Visit Reedpop ID if you need to resend the confirmation email.