The Boys is an American media franchise, consisting of an action-drama and satirical black comedy superhero television series which follow the residents of a world where superpowered individuals called "Supes" are recognized as heroes by the general public and work for a powerful corporation known as Vought International, which markets, monetizes, and (secretly) creates them, with most being selfish and corrupt outside of their heroic personas. Based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, originally published by DC Comics under its Wildstorm imprint before moving to Dynamite Entertainment, the television franchise debut has garnered success both financially and critically.
The first season of The Boys, developed by Eric Kripke with executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, was released in July 2019, with an ensemble cast led by Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Karl Urban, and Antony Starr. A second season, with Colby Minifie and Aya Cash joining the main cast, was released from September to October 2020, a third season, with Claudia Doumit and Jensen Ackles, was released from June to July 2022, a fourth season, with Cameron Crovetti, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, was released from June to July 2024, and a fifth and final season, with Daveed Diggs, was released from April to May 2026, with an animated spin-off anthology series, The Boys Presents: Diabolical, releasing in March 2022, and an Audible podcast, The Boys: Deeper and Deeper, starring Chace Crawford, Katy Breier, and Leigh Bush, releasing in June 2022. The series were released via Amazon Prime Video, while on YouTube, sponsored promotional episodes of Death Battle! were released from 2020 to 2022, the web series Vought International was released from 2021 to the present, and its sub-series Seven on 7 and Deep Thoughts With The Deep were released from 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2026, respectively.
The franchise continued with a live-action spin-off series, Gen V, with an ensemble cast led by Jaz Sinclair, centered around the corruption of the Vought-run "Supe" college Godolkin University, and loosely adapted from The Boys comic series' story arc We Gotta Go Now by Ennis, Robertson and John Higgins, which premiered with its first season in 2023, and aired its second season, adding Sean Patrick Thomas and Hamish Linklater to the main cast, in 2025, with two other live-action spin-off series in production: Vought Rising, a prequel series set in the 1950s and centering the characters of Soldier Boy, Stormfront, and Bombsight from The Boys, with Jensen Ackles, Aya Cash, and Mason Dye reprising their respective roles alongside a new cast, and The Boys: Mexico, a series set in Mexico and starring Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal. Kripke has stated that additional spin-offs are in early development, and that the television side of the franchise had been internally referred to as the "VCU" ("Vought Cinematic Universe").
Development Origin
The Boys television franchise is based on the comic series of the same name, which was originally published by WildStorm (DC Comics) from October 2006 to January 2007, before being cancelled and moved to Dynamite Entertainment, where it was published from February 2007 until November 2012. Several spin-offs of the series were published by Dynamite during the latter run, initially known simply as Herogasm, Highland Laddie, and Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker, before being rebranded as regular volumes of The Boys for the series' omnibus re-release. The series was created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Following the launch of the television adaptation for Amazon Prime Video by Eric Kripke, an eight-issue epilogue series to The Boys comic series, Dear Becky, was published from June to November 2020. All 98 issues of the series have been faithfully adapted into seven full cast audiobooks produced by GraphicAudio beginning in May 2020. All volumes are a combined 31 hours in length.
Production Between 2008 and 2016, a film adaptation of The Boys had been in various stages of development at both Columbia Pictures and Paramount Pictures. Adam McKay expressed interest in directing, and Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay were in charge of the screenplay. McKay expressed interest in casting Russell Crowe as Billy Butcher and Simon Pegg as Hughie, as well as shooting the film in 3D. On April 6, 2016, it was announced that Cinemax was developing a television series adaptation of the comic book. The production was being developed by Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen. Kripke was set to write the series while Goldberg and Rogen were set to direct. Executive producers were reported to include Kripke, Goldberg, Rogen, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Ori Marmur, James Weaver, Ken Levin, and Jason Netter. Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson were set as co-executive producers. Production companies involved with the series included Point Grey Pictures, Original Film, and Sony Pictures Television.
On November 8, 2017, it was announced that Amazon had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of eight episodes. The series had reportedly been in development at Amazon for a number of months preceding the series order announcement. It was also reported that the previously announced creative team was still attached to the series. Kripke wanted to retain a sense of reality to the show, and to keep the writers disciplined decided "Anything that comes out of this drug is viable, and anything that doesn't we're not allowed to do". He did not want to fall into the overused convention of killing off female characters to motivate the heroes and also saw an opportunity to surprise readers of the comics by changing the story of Butcher's wife Becky. On April 30, 2018, it was announced that Dan Trachtenberg would direct the series' first episode, replacing Rogen and Goldberg, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
Ahead of the series premiere, on July 19, 2019, at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that Amazon had renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on September 4, 2020. It was also confirmed that the second season would consist of eight episodes, like the previous season. Kripke confirmed that he was already starting to write the scripts just before the series premiere revealing that it took "a lot of tiptoeing around expectations for the hit's sophomore outing". The eight scripts for the second season were completed by November 2019. The season explore issues like white nationalism, white supremacy, systemic racism, and xenophobia which Kripke saw this as an opportunity to introduce Stormfront due to the character being a racist superhero who also supports Nazism. Kripke revealed that unlike the comics where Stormfront is male, the character would be gender swapped for the series with the intention of creating "Homelander's worst nightmare that would be a strong woman who wasn't afraid of him and proceeded to steal his spotlight."
Ahead of the second-season premiere, on July 23, 2020, Amazon renewed the series for a third season at the aftershow hosted by Aisha Tyler for the 2020 San Diego Comic-Con@Home. The third season began filming in early 2021 with an unknown release date. On October 30, 2020, Kripke revealed that the third season would adapt the miniseries comic book Herogasm, which is centered around superhero orgy festivals. It would be adapted for the season's sixth episode, which would be named "Herogasm" after the miniseries. Kripke stated that "Herogasm" had "the craziest dailies he [had] ever seen" and "that people [were] not ready to watch it". However, while "Herogasm" would be adapted, the series' Soldier Boy would be based on the World War II-era "Homelander before Homelander", rather than the incompetent modern-day successor from the comic series.
At the 2021 CCXP Worlds panel for Prime Video in Brazil, a spin-off animated anthology series of the Boys was announced, titled The Boys Presents: Diabolical and likened by executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to The Animatrix. Diabolical is made up of eight brand new stories created by Awkwafina, Garth Ennis, Eliot Glazer and Ilana Glazer, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, Simon Racioppa, Justin Roiland and Ben Bayouth, Andy Samberg, and Aisha Tyler. The series premiered on March 4, 2022. Eric Kripke stated that the idea to create Diabolical arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the producers wanted to release something during the wait for season three of The Boys. Due to the restrictions on most live-action productions, they decided to try and make an animated anthology utilizing different forms and styles. Several key cast members were revealed with the first teaser trailer in February 2022, which included several of the creators. Later that month, a full trailer with the rest of the large cast was revealed. This included the revelation that Pegg would provide the voice of Hughie Campbell, a character who was long associated with Pegg; however, Pegg could not portray him in live action, having aged too much by the time the series was produced.
On September 20, 2020, a live-action spin-off of The Boys, initially titled The Boys Presents: Varsity and later retitled Gen V, was announced, with Craig Rosenberg writing and executive producing the series with Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Michaela Starr, Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, Sarah Carbiener, Erica Rosbe, Aisha Porter-Christie, Judalina Neira, and Zak Schwartz. On September 27, 2021, Amazon gave the order for the series and Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters were set as showrunners and executive producers of the series. On October 2, 2020, Kripke stated Hunger Games-inspired series would focus on the G-Men team, originally created as a parody of Marvel Comics' X-Men, who were first mentioned in the first season of The Boys and said via ticker tape in the second season to be undergoing a version of the #MeToo movement called "#G-Too".
On June 10, 2022, Amazon renewed The Boys for a fourth season. On October 19, 2023, Gen V was renewed for a second season.
Television series
The Boys (2019–2026)
The first television series, The Boys, follows the eponymous team of vigilantes as they combat super-powered individuals who abuse their abilities. At the start of the series, Hughie Campbell is recruited to the Boys by Billy Butcher after the former's girlfriend Robin is accidentally killed by the speedster A-Train, while elsewhere, the superhero group known as the Seven are joined by Annie January, a young and hopeful heroine forced to face the truth about those she admires. As Butcher comes to odds with the Seven's unstable and violent leader, the Homelander, the two independently face the forces of Vought International executive Madelyn Stillwell and CEO Stan Edgar, as well as Edgar's daughter Victoria Neuman, and Homelander's father, Soldier Boy.
The concept of an adaptation of The Boys originated when Columbia Pictures optioned the then-ongoing comic for a film adaptation in February 2008, to be produced by Neal H. Moritz. and Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi writing the screenplay. In August 2010, Adam McKay said that he had been signed on to direct the film. McKay added, "They already have a script and we're doing a rewrite on it so hopefully getting the whole thing into shape in the Fall with maybe a shoot happening in January." Columbia Pictures reported in February 2012 that it had dropped its option regarding a film adaptation of The Boys. However, Adam McKay said in a Twitter response that Paramount Pictures had picked it up, and that it was still in the works. On April 30, 2013, Manfredi and Hay were hired by Paramount to write the film, only for the project to enter development hell.