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The Boys' creator Eric Kripke reveals a lot more is going on behind the guts and gore in Prime Video’s hit series than you might realize. In a recent chat with Total Film, he and his cast drilled down into some of their favorite Easter eggs and why, as season 3 begins, we should be looking a bit closer at our screens.
"I just so love fleshing out the world because it's such an absurd, silly, terrible dystopia of a world," Kripke explains. "I spend a ridiculous amount of time giving notes on things like the movie posters in the background and the advertisements. Because one, they’re hilarious and so fun to work on, and two, it drives me nuts when so many times you're watching a movie or a TV show or something and whatever they put back there, either on the wall or on a TV screen, it's obvious that it was an afterthought. They just did some dumb bad Photoshop post that the Art Department took maybe, you know, an hour to do because someone forgot that they had to do it and that always yanks me out of it."
So with The Boys, the approach is much more detailed. Instead of quick mock-ups, Kripke and his team take weeks out of the production schedule to make sure they’re doing justice to the world that Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson created in the comic books. "I always say like, well, if it's a commercial, it has to be as good as a commercial and if it's a movie, it has to be as good as a movie," Kripke explains. "That takes time and money but I just love it. I do it because it's just such a fun world to fuck around in."
The trailer already reveals some glimpses at what we can expect with this going into season 3. There’s the Dawn of the Seven movie, which is The Boys’ response to The Avengers and Justice League movies (complete with its own hashtag – #releasethebourkecut). As well as this, there’s the reality show American Hero, which sees Homelander (Antony Starr) and Starlight (Erin Moriarty) picking the next members of The Seven.
According to the cast, there are also some key moments that they snuck in for their characters as well. Nathan Mitchell, who plays the mysterious and brutal Black Noir, says he’s always adding in little background ticks to his performance. "I have a lot of fun with Noir," he says. "And there are a lot of little quirks and idiosyncrasies. I think for me one of the subtle things that I like to do is communicate his emotional state by his breathing. You know, so like, how intensely he's breathing, how rapidly, how slowly gives a clue to like, what's going on internally for him."
While for Kimiko and Frenchie, the actors reveal that they came up with a handshake for their characters going into season 3. Tomer Capone says: "It got cut out but we did a handshake the whole way through shooting, and that was something that bonded us. It was a connection thing. I even remember a scene where we did it, it didn’t come in, but doing that [Kimiko] went out to do whatever she was doing and her look changed in the frame – that’s because of the handshake."
And, of course, in season 3, Kripke reveals they couldn’t resist sneaking in some Supernatural Easter eggs. The show marks a reunion for The CW series creator Kripke with its star, Jensen Ackles who plays Soldier Boy. Given they also have Philip Sgriccia who’s worked on both shows, Kripke admits it was something he couldn’t resist bringing in.
"There are a few Supernatural Easter eggs that we couldn't resist and it was just more because you know, I'm making the show, Jensen's making the show, Phil Sgriccia who was one of the big producer/directors on Supernatural is on The Boys with me so like between the three of us we couldn't help but drop in some like Supernatural stuff."
It’s not just for the viewers, either. Kripke even managed to slip in an Easter egg for Amazon when piecing together the season 2 finale. You may recall how, after everything goes down with Becca, Stormfront, and Butcher, Homelander is standing on top of a building over New York City masturbating, as he yells, "I can do whatever I want". This is actually a scene from the first season, which Kripke had to cut as Amazon wouldn’t let him have it. He reveals he managed to find a place for it in the finale – surprising them in the final cut.
"That was just me being mischievous," he says. In the finale, he explains he’d initially planned to have Homelander floating up in space, but Amazon felt it needed something a little extra. "The note said, 'I can't put my finger on it but I wish that last moment with Homelander had a little more punch,'" he recalls. "And I said, 'Oh, I have just the thing.' I didn't give him any heads up that it was coming, just in the next version of the cut I put that scene beat-for-beat back. 'Hey, if you want more, you want more punch, here's more punch!'"
The Boys season 3 will premiere with the first 3 episodes on Friday, June 3 on Prime Video. New episodes will be available each Friday, leading up to the season finale on July 8. Looking for more to stream? Check out our guide to the best shows on Amazon Prime Video to watch right now.
