Can The Boys Presents: Diabolical be considered canon to the main TV show, and where does each episode of the animated anthology sit within franchise history? The twisted, blood-soaked, comic-book-inspired world of The Boys lends itself naturally to the realm of animation, and with Amazon plotting a multi-project spread over the coming years, a show along the lines of The Boys: Diabolical was always inevitable. Each short tells a separate story within The Boys' universe, and though many of the featured supes are totally new to, they're joined by the familiar chiseled jawlines of Homelander, The Deep, Black Noir (we assume), and more.
The Boys: Diabolical doesn't pick up the baton of any big story threads from its parent series. Those expecting to learn more about Victoria Neuman or witness the latest romantic troubles between Starlight and Hughie will leave empty-handed. Nevertheless, The Boys: Diabolical does draw upon elements of the main show for inspiration - and that could invite confusion over whether these episodes are actually canon, or set within their own bubble.
Although the anthology format means not every episode follows the same rules, The Boys: Diabolical is a semi-canon spinoff, set within the same world as Amazon's The Boys TV show... for the most part. The most obvious non-canon installment is "I'm Your Pusher," written by original comic creator, Garth Ennis. "I'm Your Pusher" features the original characters and world as drawn by Darick Robertson and printed by Dynamite between 2006 and 2012. Here, Hughie looks like Simon Pegg, and Jack from Jupiter returns to the Seven after being omitted from live-action. Aside from "I'm Your Pusher," each episode of The Boys: Diabolical connects to Amazon's superhero universe one way or another apart from "Laser Baby's Day Out," which sits in stark isolation.
From there, things get a little dicey. We can deduce that "An Animated Short Where Pissed-Off Supes Kill Their Parents," "Boyd In 3D," "BFFs," and "John & Sun-Hee" all sit between The Boys seasons 2 and 3, since all four rely on the premise of Compound-V becoming public knowledge - a feat Hughie and Starlight were responsible for in season 2. Meanwhile, "Nubian vs. Nubian" is confirmed to take place within The Boys' present day following a flashback from 8 years prior. While each episode sits within The Boys' continuity, that doesn't, however, make them canon to Amazon's live-action series, and Eric Kripke has confirmed only "An Animated Short..." bears a true connection to the main show.
The other exception is "One Plus One Equals Two," which tells the story of Homelander's public debut and represents the only The Boys: Diabolical episode that's explicitly confirmed as full-canon. Although the episode isn't dated, we know Homelander was grade school age in 1994 due to grainy video footage from his lab trial days, which would place his maiden mission as "The Homelander" somewhere around the mid-2000s. That doesn't quite line up with The Boys: Diabolical's young Madelyn Stillwell, or Antony Starr (The Boys' Homelander actor) being born in 1975, and Eric Kripke might now find himself wishing that lab footage sequence had said 1984 instead of 1994.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical may not leave a huge impact on the central storylines from Amazon's main show, but the spinoff takes a first step toward broadening and diversifying that fictional universe beyond the antics of Billy Butcher and the Seven.