The Art and Making of The Boys E-Book

Peter Aperlo

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 176

Beschreibung

The definitive guide to the making of the Prime Video smash hit The Boys, featuring exclusive insights into the origins, themes and production of the show from the cast and crew.The Art and Making of The Boys is a fascinating insight into the darkest, wittiest, most shocking series on TV – a pitch-black satire of superheroes and corporate America based on the classic comic books.It's packed with eye-popping exclusive art, behind-the-scenes photography, and interviews with the cast and crew detailing how and why The Boys came to our screens. It's the perfect companion to the show, and a treasure trove for fans.

Leseprobe

Well, well. What have we here? Moreself-congratulatory bollocks from the cunts at Vought?This should be good for a laugh…...

- Butcher

THE ART AND MAKING OF THE BOYS

Printed Edition ISBN: 9781803360164Ebook Edition ISBN: 9781803360881

Published by Titan BooksA division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd.144 Southwark St.LondonSE1 0UP

First edition: October 20222 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

THE BOYS™ © 2022 Sony Pictures Television Inc.and Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission ofthe publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other thanthat in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on thesubsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

WRITTEN BY PETER APERLO

CoNtEnTs

FOREWORD

06

ORIGINS

08

Introduction

10

Road to Streaming

14

Adapting the Comics

16

What’s it All About?

18

Making it Real

20

The Look

23

The Supersuits

26

The Music

31

Why Now?

32

CHARACTERS

34

The Boys

36

Billy Butcher

38

Hughie

44

Mother’s Milk

50

Frenchie

54

Kimiko

58

The Supes

62

Homelander

64

Starlight/Annie

70

Queen Maeve

74

A-Train

78

The Deep

82

Black Noir

86

Translucent

89

Stormfront

90

Soldier Boy

94

Madelyn Stillwell

98

Stan Edgar

99

Ashley Barrett

100

Victoria Neuman

101

Becca Butcher

102

Hugh Sr.

103

THEMES

106

Introduction

108

Compound V

112

Collateral Damage

114

Xenophobia

122

Ultra-Violence

124

Girls Get It Done

132

Race

137

Celebrity Worship

139

Everything’s For Sale

146

Life After the Seven

153

Wannabes

154

Religious Hypocrisy

158

Sex & Power

162

Supe Sex

168

Sex & Violence

172

Homelander vs. Butcher

174

Family Ties

180

THE future

182

What’s Ahead

184

The Boys Presents: Diabolical

186

Dawn of the Seven

190

Acknowledgments

192

fOrEwOrD

FROM SETH & EVAN

Movies used to be the coolest thing out there.Then it became TV. But now, we’ve gone backto the FUCKING BEGINNING. That’s right. THEBOYS: THE BOOK!!! All the gore, excitement,action, and emotion, but with no BULLSHITmoving images or distracting sound. Simple,safe, still photos, words on the page that STAY onthe page, plus the proprioceptive thrill of turningLITERAL PAGES!!! You’ve tried drugs, sex, androck and roll, maybe even a little CompoundV, but you’re a pathetic piece of shit whodoesn’t know a FUCKING THING until you’veexperienced the unrelenting insanity of the writtenword UNLEASHED!!! So buckle up, strap in,strap on and step up, ’cause SHIT’S ABOUT TOGET REAL.

Sincerely,Seth and Evan

6

THE ART AND MAKING OF THE BOYS

“talent

is forever.”

homelander

oRiGiNs

F**KSuPeS

INTRODUCTION

In 2006, amid the post-9/11madness of a misnamed andmisaimed “War on Terror,”Orwellian surveillance, extraordinaryrendition, a sub-prime mortgagebubble primed to pop, and thefestering rise of talentless realitystardom, writer Garth Ennis andartist Darick Robertson unleashedThe Boys on an unsuspecting world.

Here was an irreverent look atsuperheroes who were anything butheroes. These were corporate shillsout to make a buck off branding,shag anything that moved, andlive a life free from consequences.Enter the Boys (Pro Tip: The lack ofitalics means we’re talking aboutthe group of characters, instead ofthe comics or TV show), a shadowyCIA-backed group of misfits taskedwith keeping tabs on, and moreoften than not canceling withextreme prejudice, any and all“Supes” that got out of line. (Anyguesses what “Supes” is short for?)Headed by Billy Butcher, a causticCockney hell-bent on revenge,the group roped in a Scottish lad

they called Wee Hughie after asupe killed Hughie’s girlfriendby accident. Rounding out thegang with their own unique setsof skills were Mother’s Milk, theFrenchman, and a mute womanknown simply as the Female. “Wereally didn’t know what to expect...The reaction to it was surprisinglypositive,” says Robertson.

After a six-issue run at DC imprintWildStorm, The Boys jumped toDynamite Entertainment for therest of its lifespan: 72 total issuesover six years, plus an epiloguein 2020. As popular intellectualproperties tend to do, this and therest of Ennis’ impressive body ofwork quickly attracted the attentionof Hollywood. As Neal Moritz,executive producer and founderof Original Film, tells it, “I waslucky enough that somebody in myoffice familiarized me with Garth’swork, and was so enthusiasticthat I started to read through abunch of books. The first one Iread was Preacher, which wasjust incredible. I was lucky enough

ORIGINS: INTRODUCTION

11

to go to Garth and get the rightsto do that show. Originally, I wasgoing to do it as a feature film.Sam Mendes was involved. For anumber of reasons, it just didn’thappen, and we thought, ‘Youknow what? Maybe it would bebetter as television.’”

To do so, he enlisted the creativetalents of fellow Garth Ennisenthusiasts Seth Rogen and EvanGoldberg, with whom he wasshooting Green Hornet at the time.

“Garth’s material just makes greatentertainment because it’s veryadult. It doesn’t pull its punches,”says Goldberg. “It’s not a kids’medium. It’s for everyone. He wasone of the first people who, I felt,really said that to his readers. Like,‘I’m going nuts here, and you’readults. You can handle it.’”

When the Preacher series tookoff, “we got to talking aboutdoing another thing with themand Garth,” explains Moritz. “I

just loved the idea of what TheBoys was. I just loved the idea ofthe people charged with tryingto keep the superheroes undercontrol. It was a fantastic idea, andwe were talking about doing thatas a feature with Adam McKay.”History repeated itself, however,and that project failed to take off.And like déjà vu all over again,Moritz, Rogen, and Goldberg eyedtelevision as a possible home forthese scrappy anti-heroes.

THIS PAGE: Producer and showrunner Eric Kripke explains a shot to thecrew while Tomer Capone (Frenchie) and Laz Alonso (M.M.) take a breather.

“It doesn’t

pull its punches.”

evan goldberg

why you working withVought, Seth?

ORIGINS: INTRODUCTION

13

RoAd tO StReAmInG

THE PRODUCERS

Appropriately, The Boys took itsfirst steps on that long journey witha “Fuck you!” from Eric Kripke,creator of Supernatural and manyother shows, and another Ennisultra-fan. “Garth Ennis is myfavorite comic book writer of alltime. I obsessively inhale everyword the guy writes,” says Kripke.“I’d read The Boys and loved it.I’d put Preacher up with Sandmanand Watchmen as some of the bestcomics that will ever be made. I’dread that Seth Rogen and Evan

Goldberg and Original Film weremaking Preacher. I didn’t knowSeth and Evan at the time, but Iknew a producer who worked forNeal Moritz, Ori Marmur. So, I seta meeting with him, we came in,exchanged pleasantries, and hesays, ‘What’s up?’ And I say, ‘Oh,I just wanted to say fuck you forgiving Preacher to somebody else,because I’m the world’s biggest fanof Preacher!’ And Ori said, ‘Well,we have the rights to The Boys. Doyou want The Boys?’ And I was

like, ‘Absolutely!’ And that’s how Igot attached. It was kind of stupidhow quickly it all happened,”he says.

For Moritz, bringing on Kripketo run the show was a no-brainer.“It came down to the fact that heloved the source material. He knewhow to take that source material,given his experience on all theseother shows that he worked on,and translate it not only into amakeable show, but a commercialshow. He just has the passion for it.

14

THE ART AND MAKING OF THE BOYS

THIS PAGE: Kripke (black cap) shares something diabolical with (L to R) Marty Schluter, Stephan Fleet, Rian McNamara, Phil Sgriccia,Colby Minifie (Ashley Barrett), and Aya Cash (Stormfront).

He’s great at knowing what thesecharacters would do. There’s moreto being a showrunner than justbeing the creative mind behindsomething. He’s a bigger figurethan that, and takes on muchgreater responsibility,” he says.

“Eric’s pitch for the showwas incredible,” says executiveproducer Pavun Shetty. “Wewalked into every network’sconference room and set up giantposter boards with pictures fromthe comics, and once all of theexecutives filed in he just launchedinto it. He’s a masterful storytellerand the pitch was filled with thesame energy you see in the show.He took them through the entirepilot story, hitting every gnarly

detail along the way. Almostevery time, there was a pregnantpause after Eric was finished andthen the first word we heard backwas, ‘wow.’”

But regardless of how quicklythe deals initially came togetheror how perfect Kripke was for thejob, the road to the small screenwas not without its bumps. Forexample, a year spent crafting thepilot for Cinemax was lost whenthat streamer decided to focuson lower budget programming.That could’ve easily spelled doomfor the project as it languished inlimbo. “A real unsung hero of TheBoys was an executive at Cinemax,Scott Nemes, who I’d gone tocollege with, thank God. Without

him, I think Cinemax would’vejust held onto the script,” Kripkeexplains. “Scott, because he wasa friend of mine and he was areally good dude, said, ‘I likethis script too much to have it gothrough this castration. I advocatedto my bosses that they let go ofit and give it back to you.’ Andthey did! At that same time, PrimeVideo had just started a genredivision, and they were looking forstuff exactly like The Boys—noisy,turnkey, developed, and in goodshape. And they bought it.” Itwould still be another six to sevenmonths of development, meetings,concept art, and lots of notesbefore Amazon gave The Boys thecoveted green light.

ORIGINS: ROAD TO STREAMING

15

aDaPtInG ThE CoMiCs

FROM PAGE TO SCREEN

Despite Ennis and Robertsondelivering a proof of concept beforeKripke’s first keystroke, he foundadapting someone else’s work tobe agonizingly nerve-wracking.“I’d never adapted before this, andI don’t think I’m ever going to doit again,” he says. “When you’recreating your own story or world,there’s nothing but smooth, emptyhorizon. You can go wherever youwant. But when you’re adapting,there are all these pitfalls andminefields, because it’s somebodyelse’s world that is beloved bymany, many people—and belovedby me! But it’s a different medium,and so you can’t do a one-to-oneadaptation. With every choice Imake, I run the risk that I’m going toruin the thing that I love for the wholeworld... for Garth or the audience.So, the pressure is really intense. Iliken it to an incredibly stressful gameof Jenga—every piece you pull,you’re wondering if that’s going tomake the whole thing topple over.”

One thing that steadied Kripke’sJenga hand was a meeting withEnnis to talk about the inspirationbehind the comics. “For him, it wasreally a lot of James Ellroy, whichI thought was super interesting,”says Kripke. “I took that to heart,and I’d even say the show owes alot more to James Ellroy than thecomics do... because we neededto come up with an eight-episodestoryline. The comic itself is veryepisodic, like a cop show. But theEllroy piece really opened a doorfor me: ‘Oh, we could do a season-wide, L.A. Confidential mystery.’Chinatown, although not Ellroy, isanother example. It’s a good noirstory—not Black Noir, but noir...We could open with something thatseems very basic—which in SeasonOne is Robin getting run throughby A-Train—but it opens the doorto a larger, and larger, and largerconspiracy that has world-changingconsequences. In Season Two,Stormfront comes in as a femme

fatale. What’s her story? And thenshe opens up into something largerand more nefarious.”

Another example that informedKripke’s take on the superhero bizwas 1976’s Network, a masterful,satirical look under the hood oftelevision news. “Now obviously,I wouldn’t be able to hold PaddyChayefsky’s piss in a bucket,” saysKripke, “but that’s just one of myall-time favorite movies. It’s just sosmart and funny, and so ‘insidebaseball’ about how the wholeindustry works... I saw throughVought an opportunity to make myversion of the movie Network.”Vought International, of course, isthe mega-corporation behemothbehind Compound V, the glowingblue elixir that gives the Supestheir powers. Vought also controlsSupes’ crime-fighting contracts, PR,marketing, appearances, movies,TV shows, and a full range of Supe-branded consumer products—fromfrozen peas to dildos.

OPPOSITE: Butcher and The Boys from the original comic.

16

THE ART AND MAKING OF THE BOYS

“I likenit to anincrediblystressfulgame ofjenga.”

eric kripke

ORIGINS: ADAPTING THE COMICS

17

“the worst people ever to be born.”

seth rogen

wHaT’s iT AlL AbOuT?

SUPERHERO SATIRE

With those perspectives in place,it remained to narrow down whatthe show was really about—onthe surface as well as underneath.Moritz sums it up very succinctly:“It’s a look at if superheroes werereal in our world, how they wouldbe treated like celebrities. It’sabout how corporations are really,truly about the bottom line. Andit’s also about showing that youdon’t need powers to stand up forwhat’s right.” He adds that “a lot ofmaterial has been pulled up from

what’s going on in our politicalclimate. I think there’s a hugeentertainment value to the show,but there’s a timely political value tothe show as well. The subtext of ourshow is what’s currently going on inthe world, without hitting people onthe head with a news show.

“If superheroes were real theywould probably be egomaniacal,sociopathic, godlike beings whowere not constrained by thenormal physical and moral thingsthat keep humans acting remotely

appropriately... Absolute powercorrupts absolutely and all that,”says Rogen, while reminding usthat the Supes themselves arereally metaphors. “Mostly, celebrityculture is what we ended uplampooning—is that a word anyoneuses anymore? I just used it. Let’sbring it back—That was more theconversation we would have whenwe were trying to sell the show,and I know this more than anyone:Celebrities are insane, and theyhave just slightly more power than

18

THE ART AND MAKING OF THE BOYS

THIS SPREAD: (Left) In-universe comic book covers created for the TV series by Darick Robertson. (Above) Homelander (Antony Starr) andStarlight (Erin Moriarty) make nice for the cameras.

the average rich person does...Now, imagine they could fly. Theywould literally be the worst peopleever to be born,” he contends.

“Seth and Evan had a lot ofinput there,” says Kripke. “Theysaid from the very beginning,the way to make this work isjust assume every superhero isa movie star and just write themlike they’re movie stars. And thatturned out to be true. Just that ideaof the ego, and the access, andthe lack of concern about all thepeople around you making yourlife happen.”

But Kripke is quick to add thatthere is another crucial facet of

movie star life that, when appliedto Supes, simultaneously madethem more complex and crankedup the tension: frustration. “There’sthis really interesting conflict in bigmovie stars, because they have allthe power, and control, and accessin the world, and at the exact sametime they have none of it,” heexplains. “At the end of the day,you’re handed a piece of paperand told where to report in themorning. They don’t get to choosewhat they say. They don’t get tochoose where they go. They’re notin charge of their own destiny. Thatconflict of, ‘Hey wait, I’m supposedto be the most powerful person on

the planet, but there are all thesepeople around me that are forcingme in one direction or another.’”

How each Supe deals with thatreality is fodder for many storyarcs. “Once you go down thatroad, everything springs from it.Realistic psychology and howwould a person respond in arealistic situation—they might notbehave heroically. The idea that theall-powerful, invincible characterwould become sociopathic. The“Fish Guy” would be hopelesslyinsecure, because his powers arereally stupid. The speedster wouldbe a really stressed-out professionalathlete,” explains Kripke.

ORIGINS: WHATʼS IT ALL ABOUT?

19

mAkInG It rEaL

THE WORLD OF THE BOYS

So, dealing with that reality—ourreality, specifically—is the mostimportant directive on The Boys.“Grounding it in reality wasour number one priority,” saysGoldberg. On a daily basis, itinforms every creative decision,from character to wardrobe, fromproduction design to visual effects.Other superhero franchises may beepic and pretty, or in some caseseven gritty, but they generally don’texist in a world we would recognizeas our own. “It’s supposed to feel

incredibly like our world that we livein, except there are superheroes,”says Rogen, and cites the exampleof laser eyes: “We’ve seen [acertain superhero] shoot people withlaser beams our whole life, but Ithink not until I saw Homelander doit did I realize how truly grotesquean act that would be.”

But pulling off the realest comicbook show ever is a challenge.“We’re making that choice toground it in reality, but therefore thelevel of execution that is necessary

to achieve these superhero-y thingsis just a lot harder. It’s a higher barthat we’ve set for ourselves, tonallyand visually, that the show needsto achieve,” says Rogen. Goldbergadds that, among other things, itrequires, “A lot of fake blood. Fakeviscera. Limbs.”

Besides the lovely gore, whichwe’ve all grown to enjoy, what doesthat realness get us? A couple ofthings, according to Kripke. “Partof it is my style. My writing is verypop-culture-reference heavy. I like

BELOW: Homelander (Antony Starr) kneels over the burned body of Stormfront (Aya Cash).

“a lot offake blood. ”

evan goldberg

ABOVE: VFX help Homelander’s murderous fantasy become ‘reality’.

ORIGINS: MAKING IT REAL

21

ABOVE: Alastair Adana (Goran Visnjic) loses his head.

characters that speak like I speakwhen I’m with my friends, the wayeverybody speaks. They’re alwaysmaking references. But in orderto have that, you have to have arecognizable society. So, I likesetting things in a world that’s asclose to ours as possible,” he says.But the more important benefit isthat the social commentary landsharder. “It’s better for satire,because you’re directly satirizingthe world we’re living in rightnow,” says Kripke. “I like to bringthe audience in with a warmembrace: ‘This is your world. Theseare your emotions. These are yourcharacters. Just some of themhappen to fly around.’”

While in some other cinematicuniverses <cough, Watchmen,cough> the presence of superheroescan completely alter history andsociety, in The Boys, 80 years ofsuperhuman shenanigans haveleft us just as we are today. Howis that possible? Simple, really.“The superheroes on The Boys arecompletely ineffectual as heroes,”

explains Kripke. “They’re there tomake money for Vought, and makeit seem like they’re saving people.There’s a really important differencebetween image and reality. And justas so many politicians and mediafigures are telling you that they’rethere to save you, they’re not reallythere to change anything, exceptto line their own pockets... They’rereally good celebrities, but they’reterrible at what it would take tobe a hero, which is [to be] unsungand selfless.”

The Boys of The Boys, on theother hand, are in the fight for allthe right reasons. Supes and theVought machine have wrongedthem all in some deeply personalway, and they’ll use any meansnecessary to claw back somesemblance of justice. “Ultimately,it’s a show about blue-collar guysfighting superheroes, and I thinkthat’s something, in terms of wishfulfillment, that people can relateto. You’re just a regular dude, andyou’re going to try to kick the shitout of someone who’s a lot richer,

more powerful, and stronger thanyou, but you’re going to figure itout because you’re going to fuckingfight dirty,” says Kripke. Moritzechoes that sentiment, arguing that