Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) in 'The Boys' season 5. Courtesy of Prime Logo text The Boys is over — but spinoff Vought Rising is coming next year.
The prequel series to Prime Video‘s satirical anti-superhero hit is set in 1950 and focuses on fan-favorite character Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and season two breakout Stormfront (Aya Cash). The story has been described as a twisted murder mystery that charts the origins of the sinister Vought corporation.
The Hollywood Reporter asked The Boys creator Eric Kripke about the spinoff and how the new show’s tone compares to the original.
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“It’s definitely got some Boys‘ DNA in that it’s irreverent and graphic,” Kripke said. “But it has this sort of lovely, almost noir-like murder mystery — not Black Noir but actual noir. There are detectives and twists, and there’s a murder that then opens up into a bigger conspiracy.”
Continued Kripke: “We’re also trying to do a very gritty version of the ’50s. Most people’s feeling or sense memory of the ’50s is from movies, which are very sanitized. Even L.A. Confidential, as much as I love it, is visually a pretty clean movie. We wanted dirty and grimy. There would be heroin dens and gay bars and this underbelly of popular culture at the time. So to explore all that is a blast, as well.”
We pointed out that the original heavily draws from mocking current Hollywood, media and political trends and wondered if there was any concern over losing such timely and relatable topics as story fodder.
“I would say our satirical teeth are just as sharp,” he said. “History is a circle, and a lot of what was happening then are the same things that are happening now — from like weaponized religion to the way media is self-absorbed and self-centered. A lot of the targets are the same, and you get to see the origin of it. [Showrunner Paul Grellong] chose 1950 and he’s so smart to have chosen it. It’s really when America defined what the next 100 years were going to look like. So you see this reasonably new invention called television, with this new notion of advertising right into people’s homes. It’s the origin of the world we live in.”
In a recent Entertainment Tonight interview, star Ackles teased the show would be rather different than the original. “It’ll feel definitely like a different show, with the foundation and the heart of what made The Boys,” Ackles said. “In The Boys, in modern times, [Soldier Boy is] a fish out of water. He’s an analog guy who’s trapped in a digital world. So now we see him in his element. We see … what made him who he was.”
Kripke also took our burning questions about The Boys series finale in a new interview. Here’s that spoiler-filled Q&A.
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