The boys showrunner Eric Kripke revealed that he shares the fanbase’s concerns about expanding the franchise into a sprawling cinematic universe. When it debuted in 2019, The boys was a trenchant satire of Marvel and DC comic book movies, featuring superheroes who are selfish fascists and a corporation that wants to shove an endless stream of escapist superhero content down the audience’s throats. But the longer The boys continues – and the more spinoffs it launches – the closer it gets to becoming the kind of superhero franchise it should mock.
This no longer helps The boys It is owned and distributed by Amazon, exactly the kind of evil megacorporation that Vought International criticizes. Even if it was still just a series telling a superhero satire story, it would seem very hypocritical for an Amazon product to try to say something about corporate greed. But The boysThe main satirical target is overly ambitious superhero franchises that offer too many sequels and spinoffs to the detriment of story and character. If The boys continues to produce new shows, will do just that — and Kripke knows it.
Eric Kripke Said What We’re Thinking About Amazon’s Expanding The Boys Franchise
Kripke worries about boys “becoming the thing we’ve been lampooning”
In addition to The boyswhich is entering its fifth and final season, and the college spinoff Generation Vwhich has a second season on the way, The boys There are two other shows in progress: The Boys: Mexico and Vought rising. Talking about The boys‘ an ongoing series of spinoffs, Kripke recently said that he lives in fear of “becoming what we satirized five years ago.” Kripke said that The boys is a “punk rock”superhero show and“It hurts even more when punk rockers burn out,” so he is trying to avoid selling this franchise.
Kripke said The Boys is a “punk rock” superhero show, and “it hurts even more when punk rockers burn out,” so he’s trying to avoid burning out with this franchise.
The boys Season 4, Episode 5, “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son,” features the V52 Expo — a parody of Disney’s annual D23 event — where Vought announces a lineup of dozens of upcoming superhero movies and TV shows across several phases. It was a great parody of Marvel Studios’ multi-phase ads where Kevin Feige teases years and years of Marvel projects to come. But now this The boys has two shows on the air and two more in development, it’s not far from becoming an MCU-sized company.
How Making Too Many Boys Spinoffs Risks Damaging the Show’s Legacy
It’ll just be another run-of-the-mill superhero franchise
The boys runs the risk of diluting your message and tarnish its legacy if it produces too many spinoffs and loses the plot. The boys it’s about how a world full of superheroes with their own selfish interests is not sustainable – they need to be stopped or they will destroy the world. If the franchise continues and tells more and more superhero-infested stories, it will no longer be a satirical anti-superhero show. and just become another run-of-the-mill superhero franchise. The boys has already set a pretty high bar with its gore and absurdity, so there’s not much more that future shows can do.
And that’s not to mention that The boys itself is struggling narratively. In recent seasons, there hasn’t been much momentum. It is promising that the producers have decided to end The boys with its upcoming fifth season, but it’s already starting to feel like it’s been going on for a long time. The central conflict of the series is the rivalry between Billy Butcher and Homelander, and the series has already done everything it can with that rivalry before actually ending it. Now it appears to be paralyzing rather than ending the conflict.
The Boys spinoffs can’t lose sight of the message of the original series
Boys have always criticized superheroes
If The boys the franchise will continue – and will avoid “selling”, as Kripke fears – so it needs to maintain the message of the original series. From the beginning, the driving narrative has been Butcher’s quest to kill all supers. The superheroes in The boys universe are corrupt and amoral. In fact, they help no one but themselves; Vought’s PR department just gives the public the impression that the supers are keeping them safe. Spinoffs can’t go back on this and feature a bunch of super kind people who want to do good.
Generation V appears to be setting this up with a group of young adult superheroes who really want to use their powers to help people. But if that happens, then it will cease to be The boys and simply become Teen Titans. The boys‘The spinoffs need to maintain the dark tone of the original show and its reflection of a cruel and unfair world where the people who hold all the power are only looking out for themselves. Otherwise, it will just become an escapist fantasy like the Marvel Cinematic Universe.