Originally intended to be a
feature-length film trilogy, the comic book series adaptation began its development in 2008, with
Adam McKay set to direct the films. Due to creative differences between the crew and the studios that picked it up, the project was left in
development hell. Eventually, the development for The Boys was revived in 2016 by
Cinemax, which announced that it would be reworked as a television series. Kripke was recruited to be the
showrunner of the series, while
Seth Rogen and
Evan Goldberg would be credited as
executive producers.
Amazon Studios obtained the rights for the series in November 2017, with production starting in May 2018 in
Toronto, Canada.
The Boys premiered its
first season of eight episodes on July 26, 2019. A
second season premiered on September 4, 2020, with the
third season following on June 3, 2022. In June 2022, the series was renewed for a
fourth season, which premiered on June 13, 2024. In May 2024, the series was renewed for a fifth and final season. As part of a
shared universe, a spin-off web series, Seven on 7, premiered on July 7, 2021, an
animatedanthology series, Diabolical, premiered on March 4, 2022, and a second live-action television series, Gen V, premiered on September 29, 2023.
The Boys is set in a universe where
superpowered individuals (referred to as "Supes") are recognized as heroes by the general public and work for Vought International, a powerful corporation that markets and monetizes them. Outside their heroic personas, most are corrupt and self-serving. The series primarily focuses on two groups: "The Seven", Vought's premier superhero team, and "The Boys",
vigilantes looking to bring down Vought and its corrupt superheroes.
Karl Urban as
William "Billy" Butcher[2][3] – The leader of The Boys and a former
SAS operative who distrusts all
superpowered individuals. He has a particular hatred towards Homelander, who he believes is responsible for the disappearance of his wife, Becca; Luca Villacis and Josh Zaharia portray younger versions of Butcher.[4]
Antony Starr as
John / Homelander[2][6] – The extremely powerful leader of The Seven. Beneath his public image as a noble hero, he is egotistical and megalomaniacal, and he cares little about the well-being of those he professes to protect; Rowan Smyth and Isaac Weeks portray younger versions of John in the second and fourth season, respectively.
Erin Moriarty as
Annie January / Starlight[2][7] – A superhero with light-based powers and a member of The Seven. One of the few heroes who values protecting society, she questions her loyalty to The Seven after learning of their true character; Maya Misaljevic portrays a young Annie.[8]
Laz Alonso as
Marvin T. "Mother's" Milk / M.M.[2][9] – A member of The Boys responsible for organizing and planning their operations. Formerly a medic in the
United States Marine Corps, he joined The Boys after Soldier Boy caused his grandfather's death and his attorney father working himself to demise attempting to bring Vought down; Elias Leon Leacock portrays a young M.M.
Tomer Capone as
Serge / Frenchie[2][11] – A member of The Boys and an international
arms trafficker skilled in chemistry, infiltration, munitions, and ordnance. Coerced into joining the group to protect his criminal friends, he seeks redemption for his past crimes by fighting against Vought.
Karen Fukuhara as
Kimiko Miyashiro / The Female[2][12] – A
mute member of The Boys with super strength and regenerative
healing. Involuntarily injected with Compound V as part of a scheme to create superpowered terrorists, she joins The Boys after they free her.
Nathan Mitchell as
Earving / Black Noir (seasons 1–3) and
Black Noir II (season 4)[2][6] – A mysterious member of The Seven who possesses superhuman strength and agility. Formerly a member of Payback, he was severely disfigured during his team's mutiny against Soldier Boy, rendering him mute and forcing him to conceal his physical appearance behind a dark costume. He fails to avenge Soldier Boy and dies, and is then succeeded by a replacement for a cover-up.[13] Fritzy-Klevans Destine portrays a young, unmasked Black Noir in the third season.[14]
Elisabeth Shue as
Madelyn Stillwell[2][15] (season 1; guest season 2) – The charismatic, scheming vice president at Vought International responsible for managing the superheroes.
Jensen Ackles as
Ben / Soldier Boy[2][20][21] (season 3) – Vought's original premier superhero and the leader of Payback. Thought to have been killed during the
Cold War, he was secretly betrayed by his team and captured by the Soviets in order for Vought to replace him with Homelander, his biological son.
Cameron Crovetti as
Ryan Butcher[2][22][23] (season 4; recurring season 2–3) – Homelander and Becca's son, known as the first natural-born "Supe", who forms a bond with his mother's husband, Butcher; Parker Corno portrayed Ryan in the
first-season finale.[23]
Susan Heyward as
Jessica "Sage" Bradley / Sister Sage[2][22][24] (season 4) – A misanthropic "Supe" with greatly enhanced intelligence, proclaimed as the smartest person on the planet, who is recruited by Homelander and replaces Ashley as CEO of Vought International.
A film adaptation of
Garth Ennis's comic book series The Boys was in various stages of development between 2008 and 2016, initially at
Columbia Pictures with
Adam McKay directing and a budget of $100 million until the project was abandoned over creative differences between the studio and McKay.
Paramount Pictures secured the rights in August 2012 and revived the production,[31][32][33] but in April 2016 the film adaptation was cancelled and it was announced that
Cinemax would be developing a television series adaptation of the comic book instead.
Evan Goldberg and
Seth Rogen, who at the time were working on the series Preacher (also based on a comic book series by Ennis), were recruited as executive producers and directors for the
pilot episode.[31]Eric Kripke, a longtime fan of Ennis's work, was hired as the series
showrunner and
head writer.[31]
In June 2024, Rogen and Goldberg recalled McKay's prior involvement and the original page-to-screen adaptation plan. It was revealed that there were serious plans to have The Boys become a three-film trilogy; the first film went as far as a finished screenplay and even demo animatics of scenes. However, the planned trilogy, like many
superhero films in pre-
MCU Hollywood, was scrapped. "I wouldn't change how it worked out because the show is amazing. But [McKay] was doing really cool stuff. It just came down to it being 2008, not 2018. I just don't think [Hollywood was] ready for it yet," explained The Boys comic book co-creator and illustrator
Darick Robertson.[34][35][36][37][38]
In November 2017,
Amazon Studios acquired the rights to the television adaptation after Cinemax chose not to move forward with it.[39][40][41][42]Sharon Tal Yguado, who had been hired that year to supervise future franchises made by Amazon, expressed her hopes that the series would offer a different take on the superhero genre at a time when Hollywood was saturated with superhero shows.[43] That same day, Amazon
greenlit the production of the
first season of eight episodes, each with an estimated budget of $11.2 million.[44] Production was expected to begin in spring of 2018 for a planned release in 2019.[45] Amazon also committed to a run of at least five seasons, in line with Kripke's plans,[46] hoping to replicate the success of hit genre dramas like Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, and The Walking Dead.[39]
A
second season was announced in July 2019 at the
San Diego Comic-Con a week before the series premiere,[47][48] with Kripke having already starting to write the scripts.[49] In December 2019, a teaser trailer confirmed that the second season would be released in 2020,[50] and another trailer released in June 2020 confirmed that it would premiere that September.[51][52][53] Seeking to make the series a topic of conversation for longer, and hoping to replicate the success of multiple series, Kripke and the producers convinced Amazon to release episodes on a weekly basis.[54][55][56]
A
third season was announced at the after-show for San Diego Comic-Con@Home in 2020.[57][58] Kripke revealed in October 2020 that he was writing the scripts for the third season,[59] shortly after Amazon had announced the
spin-off series Gen V (2023–present),[60][61] which served as a bridge between the third and
fourth seasons of The Boys,[62][63] with the latter being announced in June 2022[64][65] and planned for release in 2024.[66]
On May 14, 2024, ahead of the fourth season premiere, Amazon announced that the series was renewed for a fifth season at the Amazon Upfront presentation.[67] On June 11, 2024, Kripke announced that the fifth season would serve as the final season.[68]
Writing
The series takes place in a universe where most of the superpowered people (referred to as "Supes") pretend to be heroic to ensure that they are loved by the public, while working for Vought which is a company that monetizes and markets them, but in reality, outside their heroic personas, they are actually corrupt celebrities who abuse their powers out of selfishness for personal gain, which serves as a deconstruction of the superhero genre and the idealisms of heroism that they are supposed to represent in contrast to
Marvel and
DC.[69][70] The series attempts to more realistically portray how superheroes would enmesh themselves into contemporary culture, with many of them having an influence as political figures, over-worshipped celebrities, and profitable marketing tools for a hyper-consumerist society.[71] Many of the "Supes" that appear in the series are also a direct parody from very popular superheroes from Marvel and DC intending to give them more depraved, problematic and realistic counterparts, with each season introducing a new "Supe" that is based from a popular superheroic character.[72][73]
Despite keeping its faithfulness to the source material, the series does not fully follow the storyline from the comic book series in order to retain a sense of realism, given that Kripke considered that some of the concepts and characters from the comics were too fantastical for their portrayal in the television adaptation and put rules to the writers in order to oversee what ideas would be allowed to use and the other ones that would not.[74][75] Another reason for the changes realized to the adaptation was because of the difference between the period where the comic book and the television adaptation take place with the former taking place at the 2000s and the latter at the late 2010s respectively, to which Kripke and the writers deemed that it would be impossible to adapt to the series as it would not fit into the story of the series.[76]
Kripke originally intended for the series to make it run for five seasons as he developed some ideas that could be explored in the fourth and fifth seasons by starting to conclude some of the storylines of the series for the third-season finale.[77] He considered that the ideas he was developing for the television adaptation were enough to be developed for five seasons with further adaptations of the comic book series being adapted in planned spin-offs that would take place in the same universe of the main series.[46][78]
Following the success and renewal for its spin-off series Gen V, which would connect the third and fourth seasons of the series, Kripke revealed that he was reconsidering his original plans and admitted that the main series could run beyond five seasons given its success, while also mocking his similar initial plans he had for another series where he also served as showrunner Supernatural: "I have since realized that literally no one in history is worse at predicting the amount of seasons of a show, like literally. I have learned my lesson and I've stopped predicting how many seasons these shows go. You will find out in hindsight."[79]
In December 2017, it was announced that
Erin Moriarty had been cast in the lead role of
Annie January / Starlight.[7] In January 2018, it was reported that
Antony Starr,
Dominique McElligott,
Chace Crawford,
Jessie T. Usher, and
Nathan Mitchell had joined the main cast.[6] In March 2018, it was announced that
Laz Alonso,
Jack Quaid, and
Karen Fukuhara had been cast in series regular roles.[5][9][12] In April 2018, it was reported that
Karl Urban had been cast in the series' lead role of
Billy Butcher.[3] In May 2018, it was announced that
Elisabeth Shue had been cast in the series regular role of Madelyn Stillwell.[15] In June 2018, it was reported that
Tomer Kapon had joined the main cast in the role of Frenchie.[11] In August 2018, it was announced that
Jennifer Esposito had been cast in the recurring role of CIA Agent Susan Raynor.[80] In October 2018, it was announced during the annual
New York Comic Con that
Simon Pegg had been cast in the role of Hughie's father.[81] According to Robertson, Hughie was drawn in the comics to resemble Pegg after he saw Pegg in the sitcom Spaced, but Pegg thought he was too old to play the role of Hughie in the TV series.[82]
In July 2019, alongside the renewal of the second season, it was announced that
Aya Cash would be joining the series as a gender-swapped version of
Stormfront, following contract negotiations that began when the second season was announced.[47][83] The reason why Stormfront was changed was in order to make the character of Homelander feel even more hurt from having his spotlight stolen.[84] In September 2019,
Goran Višnjić and
Claudia Doumit were cast in recurring roles for the second season.[85] A month later,
Patton Oswalt was announced in an unspecified role,[86] later revealed to be the voice of The Deep's gills.[10]
In August 2020, it was reported that
Shawn Ashmore was cast as Lamplighter for the second season.[87] A week later,
Jensen Ackles joined the cast for the third season as
Soldier Boy.[20][88] The character of Soldier Boy would be different from the comics as he would be portrayed as the "Homelander before Homelander" probably even worse than him.[89][90] In October 2020,
Claudia Doumit and
Colby Minifie were promoted to series regulars for the third season.[16]
In March 2021,
Katia Winter joined the cast in the recurring role of
Little Nina for the third and fourth season.[91] In June 2021, Miles Gaston Villanueva,
Sean Patrick Flanery, and
Nick Wechsler were cast as
Supersonic,
Gunpowder, and
Blue Hawk, respectively, for the third season in undisclosed capacities.[92] Two days later,
Laurie Holden joined the cast as Crimson Countess in a recurring role for the third season.[93] In October 2021, Frances Turner,
Kristin Booth, and
Jack Doolan joined the cast as Monique and twins Tessa and Tommy,
a.k.a. the TNT Twins, in recurring roles for the third season.[94]
In April 2023, it was reported that Dan Mousseau will portray Webweaver, a parody of
Spider-Man, in the fourth season.[100][101][102] A first-look image of the character was shared during the V52 Expo, a fictional convention put on by Vought that parodies
Disney's
D23 Expo.[102][103][104]
In June 2024, after much speculation and discussion,
Jared Padalecki confirmed that he will appear in the fifth and final season.[105][106][107]
Filming
Although situated in New York City like in the comics, it was confirmed the series would be filmed in
Toronto, Canada.[108] In November 2017, it was announced that the filming for the series was slated to begin filming in 2018 with the hopes of releasing it in 2019. Though the series was mainly shot in Toronto, it was confirmed that additional filming would also be taking place across the
Golden Horseshoe area, including
Mississauga and
Hamilton.[39][109]
The filming for the first season started on May 22, 2018, mainly filmed at Toronto with many of the crew filming at several tourist locations, such as the
Roy Thomson Hall, the
Yonge–Dundas Square,
Lower Bay Station, and the
Sherbourne Common. In order to make it look like New York City and create the fictional places of the series such as The Seven Tower intending to capture the series universe, several of these locations were digitally altered through
CGI including the interiors of several buildings, with several rooms being digitally altered and extended. Another places of interest picked up were the Sherbourne Common, the
Cathedral Church of St. James, and the
Parkwood Estate.[110][111] Filming for the first season
wrapped on October 11, 2018.[112]
The filming for the second season started on July 17, 2019,[113] and followed the similar strategy of being filmed at touristic locations and being edited with CGI. Some of this place of interests include the
Meridian Arts Centre, the
Wet 'n' Wild Toronto Waterpark, and the
Scottish Rite Club. To create the Sage Grove psychiatric hospital, the crew filmed at the Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care complex.[110][114] Filming was also at the
Mel Lastman Square but eventually the crew were relocated by the
Toronto City Council as the location was close to the place where the
Toronto van attack occurred on April 23, 2018. This happened to avoid hurting the sentiments of the citizens of Toronto.[115][116] Filming for the second season wrapped on November 15, 2019.[117]
The filming for the fourth season started on August 22, 2022.[122] Pegg concluded filming his scenes on January 18, 2023.[123] Filming on the finale began on February 12,[124] with Starr concluding filming his scenes on April 4.[125] Filming for the fourth season wrapped on April 12, 2023.[126]
Score albums have been released for each season of the series by
Madison Gate Records.
Christopher Lennertz served as
composer of the show's score.[127][128] During an interview at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, he stated that his work for The Boys was the "craziest thing" he has ever done, after collaborating with Rogen for Sausage Party (2016).[129] For the second season's soundtrack, Moriarty provides her own vocals for the song "Never Truly Vanish", which was nominated for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.[130] The
music video for "Never Truly Vanish" was released on
YouTube on June 4, 2021.[131] Usher also performed an original song for the second season's soundtrack and, on September 1, 2021, the music video for "Faster" was released on YouTube.[132] The third season's soundtrack includes two songs performed by Miles Gaston Villanueva, "You've Got a License to Drive (Me Crazy)" and "Rock My Kiss", while Holden performed "America's Son" which were released on June 3, 2022.[133] On June 17, 2022, another video was released for a song performed by Holden: "Chimps Don't Cry".[134] The fourth season includes an original song titled "Let's Put the Christ Back in Christmas", which was performed by
Shoshana Bean,
James Monroe Iglehart,
Andrew Rannells and the cast of the fictional "Vought on Ice"
figure skating performers.[135] On June 14, 2024, the music video for "Let's Put the Christ Back in Christmas" was released on YouTube.[136] An official website for "Vought on Ice" was also created and is available to visit.[137]
The Boys was initially planned to have all eight episodes of the first season released on Amazon Prime Video on July 26, 2019,[158] but it instead premiered just a few hours earlier despite keeping the former date as the official one.[159] The second season, also consisting of eight episodes, was confirmed that it would be released on a weekly basis (instead of releasing the entire season all at once), debuting the first three episodes on September 4, 2020, and the remaining debuting on a weekly basis until the season finale on October 9.[160]
On January 6, 2022, it was reported that the third season would premiere on June 3, 2022, with the first three episodes available immediately and the rest debuting on a weekly basis until the season finale on July 8.[161] The fourth season premiered on June 13, 2024.[28]
A companion
short film titled Butcher, set between the first and second season, was released on September 10, 2020, with
Karl Urban reprising his role as
Billy Butcher.[162][163] Characters from The Boys also appeared in an episode of Death Battle!, sponsored by Prime Video, which was released on September 17, 2020.[164][165]
Home media
The first three seasons were all released on
physical media. Originally set to come out on May 17, 2022, the first two seasons were released on
Blu-ray and
DVD, in a six-disc box set by
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, on May 31, 2022. The two-season collection includes special features such as deleted/extended scenes and blooper reels; season 2's bonus content also includes Butcher: A Short Film.[166][167][168] Season 3 was released on October 24, 2023; special features include gag reels and deleted/extended scenes, as well as "The Making of Featurette".[169][170][171]
The Boys received critical acclaim, although the series' political aspects have been divisive and a major talking point, particularly for its fourth season.[b] The series has an overall rating of 93% on
Rotten Tomatoes[183] and a score of 76 on
Metacritic.[184] Many critics and publications have called it among the best Amazon Prime Video series of all time.[c] Starr's portrayal of Homelander has also received much critical acclaim, with numerous critics calling it one of the best performances on television.[d]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 85%, based on 106 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Though viewers' mileage may vary, The Boys' violent delights and willingness to engage in heavy, relevant themes are sure to please those looking for a new group of antiheroes to root for."[172] On Metacritic, the season holds a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 19 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[173]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season holds an approval rating of 97%, based on 105 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The Boys comes out swinging in a superb second season that digs deeper into its complicated characters and ups the action ante without pulling any of its socially critical punches."[174] On Metacritic, the season holds a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 15 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[175]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the third season holds an approval rating of 98%, based on 152 reviews, with an average rating of 8.05/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Managing to up the ante on what was already one of television's most audacious satires, The Boys' third season is both bracingly visceral and wickedly smart."[176] On Metacritic, the season holds a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 20 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[177]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season holds an approval rating of 94%, based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 7.75/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Boxing in the political arena with a bloodied smile, The Boys' fourth season is grim and even a little glum while holding up a cracked mirror towards modern society."[178] On Metacritic, the season holds a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 22 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[179] The season has received the most divisive and mixed reviews by critics.[e]
Audience viewership
In October 2019,
Nielsen announced it had begun tracking viewership of Amazon Prime Video programs. It said The Boys had attracted 8million total viewers in its first 10 days of release, making it one of the most successful original programs on Prime Video.[200] For the second season, the first three episodes drew a 7.2% share of streams relative to the top 100 most-watched TV shows on Reelgood within its opening weekend, beating the third season of Stranger Things (5.8%) and The Mandalorian (4.4%).[201] The show's audience increased 89% compared to the first season. Nielsen ratings showed that 891million minutes of the show had been watched, placing it number three on the Nielsen list, just behind Cobra Kai (2.17billion minutes) and Lucifer (1.42billion minutes).[202][203] It became the first non-
Netflix show to appear on the Nielsen "Top 10 Streaming Shows" list.[204][205] The first three episodes of the fourth season received a 21% increase in total viewers compared to season three in the first four days since launch. Season four became among the Top 5 most-viewed TV seasons on Prime Video through its first four days, according to the streamer. It was also reported that season four tallied the second most viewers of any returning season on Prime Video through its first four days, behind only the second season of Reacher. Furthermore, Amazon reported that The Boys has grown in global viewership per season.[206]
Awards and nominations
For its second season, the series received a nomination for
Outstanding Drama Series at the
73rd Primetime Emmy Awards in 2021, becoming the first-ever comic book television series adaptation to be nominated in that category, and received four additional nominations.[207][208][209][f] In 2022,
PETA awarded the third-season episode "
Barbary Coast" the "Tech, Not Terror" Award for using a
CGI octopus.[210]
Wade Barnett, David Barbee, Mason Kopeikin, Brian Dunlop, Ryan Briley, Chris Newlin, Christopher Brooks, Joseph T. Sabella, and Jesi Ruppel (for "
The Name of the Game")
Marco Bianco, Matthew Bianco, James Binkley, Jack Birman, Christine Ebadi, James Eddy, Tig Fong, Jason Gosbee, John Kaye, JF Lachapelle, Irma Leong, Chris Mark, Jonathan Mcguire, Geoff Meech, Anita Nittoly, Moses Nyarko, Daryl Patchett, Geoff Scovell, and Steve Shackleton
Cameron Ambridge, Jason Chu, Brian Patrick Collins, James Eddy, Steve Gagne, Evelyn Gonda, Kiralee Hayashi, John Koyama, Matt Leonard, Matt Rugetti, Geoff Scovell, and Maxwell Charles White
On December 5, 2021, at the
Brazil Comic-Con (CCXP), Amazon Prime Video announced that The Boys Presents: Diabolical, an animated anthology series, had been given an eight-episode series order.[252] On January 18, 2022, it was announced that the series would premiere on March 4, 2022.[253]
On September 24, 2020, it was announced that a spin-off centered on a superhero college had been fast-tracked into development upon the ratings success of the series' second season. Described as being "part college show, part Hunger Games", the spin-off is to be set "...at America's only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (and run by Vought International)" and is described as "an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive "Supes" as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities".[61] On October 2, 2020, Kripke stated the series would focus on the
G-Men team of "
We Gotta Go Now", originally created as a parody of Marvel Comics'
X-Men for the fourth volume of Ennis' and Robertson's comic book story arc of the same name, that had been mentioned in the first season.[254] On September 27, 2021, the untitled spin-off was given a series order by Amazon Studios.[255] Filming of the series, titled Gen V, beginning at the
University of Toronto in May 2022 and the
Claireville Conservation Area,
Brampton in July, intended for an October wrap.[256][257] The series premiered on September 29, 2023.[258] On October 19, 2023, it was renewed for a second season.[259]
The Boys: Mexico
On November 28, 2023, a new spinoff series was announced as in the works at Amazon. The Boys: Mexico is created by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, who produces alongside
Diego Luna and
Gael García Bernal.[260]
Ahead of the premiere of the third season, the series had released video segments in the form of in-universe news reports from the Vought News Network channel on YouTube, titled Seven on 7 with Cameron Coleman. Each of The Seven segments contains seven stories that tease events in upcoming episodes and introduce new cast members, and acts as a bridge between seasons 2 and 3.
Matthew Edison, who plays news anchor Cameron Coleman, also appears in the third season of the series.[261]
Supe Porn
On October 3, 2020, Kripke confirmed that the in-universe
pornographic superhero film scenes briefly glimpsed in the second season The Boys episode "
Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker" had been produced in full, expressing interest in releasing them under the name Supe Porn to the fictional website of the same name (formerly registered to
Sony Pictures),[262] as well as supposedly requesting Rogen, Goldberg, Starr and the other followers of his
Twitter page to join him in petitioning Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Studios to allow the potential
web series to be uploaded.[263] In June 2022, a fictional
online "storefront" was added to the website, containing a collection of supe-inspired sex toys.[264] At the bottom of the website, there is a message stating that its contents are "for entertainment purpose only" and products are "not for sale".[262]
Deeper and Deeper
On June 9, 2022, an
audiobook/
podcast special titled The Boys: Deeper and Deeper was released as an
Audible Original. The special takes the form of an in-universe interview with The Deep and his wife Cassandra about The Deep's memoir titled Deeper and the events in his life that are described in the memoir.[265]
In July 2023,
Activision announced a collaboration between the Call of Duty video game franchise and The Boys, which features the addition of Starlight, Homelander and Black Noir as playable characters in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0. Warzone 2.0 also features map updates that include adverts of The Seven, as well as a "Temp V" field upgrade that allows players to use one of four superpowers, based on other characters in the series.[266] A trailer for the collaboration was released on the Vought International YouTube channel, which depicts it as taking place in-universe prior to the end of the third season.[267] In November 2023, a second collaboration was announced for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, with A-Train and Firecracker joining the playable roster as part of the game's first seasonal content update.[268]
Mortal Kombat
Homelander appeared as a playable character in the video game Mortal Kombat 1, modeled after
Antony Starr and voiced by Jake Green. He is available via the "Kombat Pack"
DLC.[269]
^NBC's Heroes (2006–2010), an original television series inspired by comic books, was nominated for the same category for its
first season in
2007[208]
^Shannon Miller, Liz (June 26, 2020).
"Why It's Great News That 'The Boys' Season 2 Will Be Released Weekly". Collider.
Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved December 13, 2023. We cannot WAIT to show you season two. It's crazier, stranger, more intense, more emotional. In fact, it's too much — so the Surgeon General has insisted we air the first three episodes on September 4, then air the remaining five episodes weekly after that. We wanted to give you time to freak out, digest, discuss, come down from the high, before we give you another dose. We only have your well-being in mind. Hope you love the season as much as we do.
^Dick, Jeremy (June 22, 2024).
"Jared Padalecki Seems to Confirm 'Supernatural' Reunion in 'The Boys' Season 5". CBR. Retrieved July 1, 2024. We have talked [about a role]... I think at this point in my acting life, I only want to work on projects that I really care about or with people that I really care about, and obviously Eric [Kripke] and I are indelibly connected forever... I will be ready when he makes the phone call. I'll just say 'Okay, when am I flying out?'
^Harrigan, Will (June 28, 2024).
"Jared Padalecki Confirms 'The Boys' Season 5". Cosmic Book News. Retrieved July 1, 2024. Well, I'll say this: Kripke and I texted today. It's not been written yet, but I think he was saying [the final season] doesn't even film until 2025. So yeah, I'm going to go play in Kripke's newest playground. I had a great time the first time around, so I'm sure I'll have a great time here again. I love the show. I think it's hilarious and exciting. But you were asking what my plans for the future were — and I love Jensen and Eric Kripke. Obviously, I'll be indebted to [Kripke] and entangled with him forever. I met my wife because of him. I was
Sam Winchester because of him. Supernatural happened because of him. So working with him on a show that I enjoy, I'm like, 'Yeah, when do I fly out?' But I don't think we would film until at least January.