Are you ready to keep flipping off those bloody superheroes? Amazon's The Boys has been a huge hit -- almost immediately becoming one of the streamer's most-watched series, and also one of the top-rated by viewers. Amazon has already renewed the series for Season 2, and showrunner Eric Kripke just shared the first look from set:
Up to their old tricks, indeed. Looks like Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) get particularly covered in blood -- if we can assume that's blood -- with a few spots also covering Kimiko/The Female (Karen Fukuhara). Frenchie (Tomer Capon) over to the far left seems to be pretty blood-free. That's show creator Eric Kripke in the middle, leading the rousing round of flipping everyone the bird. The perfect way to start Season 2!
The Boys is adapted from the comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. It's set in a world where superheroes are real and marketed as heroes. The superhero team The Seven is filled with mostly arrogant and corrupt heroes, promoted by the powerful Vought International. The Boys are vigilantes who fight back against supes, as led by Karl Urban's Billy Butcher.
Where's Billy Butcher in the photo above? Well, there were eight episodes to The Boys Season 1, and the shocker of the finale might leave you with some clues.
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All eight episodes premiered July 26, and Amazon gushed that the series surpassed viewing predictions in the first two weeks. Eric Kripke was also "beyond thrilled" with the fan response to Season 1, saying it motivated him to get his ass in gear and work even harder on Season 2:
I don’t want Season 2 to go bigger, I want it to go deeper. A more intense, more insane, more wrenching, more character-driven season. It’s my one and only goal to make Season 2 even better than Season 1.
The Boys is very adult with sex and violence, but Eric Kripke said Amazon said "fuck no" to one scene with Homelander (Antony Starr) and Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue). The Boys embraces "shocking shit," but Kripke said they try to make sure it always services the character. He also talked about how the #MeToo movement gave them the opportunity to revise part of Starlight's (Erin Moriarty) storyline.
What's next?
SPOILERS AHEAD from The Boys Season 1.
Eric Kripke told EW what's ahead in The Boys Season 2, and it sounds like it will pick up directly from the Season 1 finale:
Once you end up on that Season 1 cliffhanger, you know that’s going to be a big part of Season 2, you know that Stillwell’s death is going to be a big part of season 2, and superheroes being in the military. I always try to write the season finale as a pilot for the following season and make sure that whatever we’re talking about in that finale are issues we’re going to be interested in exploring next year. So far, we’ve been doing that and it’s been turning out well. We have this real quirk of the show that it keeps reflecting reality. Now people are scared of people coming over the border and people are feeling like we might have to go to war, and suddenly the world is so much more of an intense place than it used to be — and so is our Season 2.
The Boys Season 2 is also adding Aya Cash (You're the Worst) as Stormfront, who is male in the comics and described as a kind of mix of Thor and Shazam. Also, Mr. Edgar -- the head of Vought -- made an appearance in the Season 1 finale, and you should expect to see him back in Season 2. He "becomes a really important character," as Eric Kripke told EW. Thankfully, actor Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul) was willing to return for several episodes in Season 2.
The Boys Season 1 is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Season 2 has yet to reveal its premiere date.
