Amazon Prime’s upcoming TV Show The Boys is stirring up buzz thanks to its raunchy tone and twisted take on the superhero genre, a trait which comes from Garth Ennis’ comic which it is adapting. The trailers have thus far proven to live up to the hype and fit the tone of what fans envisioned from the series. In a new behind the scenes clip, series co-creator Seth Rogen and star Karl Urban explain what makes the show stand out from the countless superhero offerings out there.
Rogen explains that the show’s premise treats its heroes as a bunch of crazy, egotistical, elite people who abuse the power they’ve been granted naturally and turn out quite unlike what we’d expect such superpowered people to be. This conflict makes the room for some interesting ramifications and ways in which the duo can play around with the genre.
The Boys takes place in a world where superheroes are a bunch of egomaniacal, sociopathic, God-like people. The show really explores what these people would be like, if they had unlimited power.
Urban, who plays the leader of The Boys, the gang that takes it upon themselves to bring the team of superheroes down basically gave a nice synopsis of the show for those unfamiliar with the source material.
The story is really about a group of vigilantes, headed by Billy Butcher, who I play. Their sole role and purpose is to bring down a group of elite superheroes called the Seven.
Written by Erik Kripke of Supernatural fame and created by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, The Boys has been under development for as many as 10 years. Initial talks to film it as a movie began circa 2010 with Adam McKay reported to direct. Those talks fell through however and The Boys ended up being reconceptualized as a TV Show under Cinemax, before being passed on and picked up by Amazon for its Prime Video streaming platform. With Amazon’s backing, the show was able to maintain its hard R-rated tone including all the gritty violence, sex, abuses and raunchy nature instead of becoming a watered down PG-13 version of the adult comics.
The adaptation was entrusted to Goldberg and Rogen after the duo’s success in adopting Garth Ennis’ other comic book series The Preacher. That show completed three seasons with a fourth season having been greenlit. The show also comes as part of Amazon’s efforts to solidify its streaming platform offering by pumping out original content to challenge the likes of Netflix. It has high-profile shows like The Man in the High Castle currently airing as it’s also set to bring The Expanse Season 4 to the big screen. And of course, the big draw will be The Lord of the Rings series which, Amazon hopes will do for its platform, what Game of Thrones did for HBO.
The Boys hits Amazon Prime Video on July 26. It features an ensemble cast that include some big names such as Karl Urban (Thor: Ragnarok), Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad), Jack Quaid (The Hunger Games) and Simon Pegg (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible). Amazon is expected to have a presence at the upcoming San Diego Comic Con as well where it will premiere The Boys and hopefully also release some footage online.
