Amazon Prime Video isn’t wasting any time getting its newest franchise off the ground as the streamer announced it has renewed The Boys for season 2 ahead of the series premiere. The series is an adaptation of the comic book of the same name from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, which envisioned a world where the superheroes were corrupt and selfish, and often times used their powers to suit their own needs and desires. Even more to the point, the heroes are all owned by a single corporation that makes a tidy profit off of endorsements and movie deals, as well as leasing the super-powered individuals out to cities looking to make a statement with their very own protector.
The series comes is executive produced and showrun by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, and is also produced by Seth Rogen and Even Goldberg, two guys who know a thing or two about adapting Ennis’s work for television. Unlike Preacher, however, The Boys doesn’t have to contend with content restrictions — such as they are — on basic cable, and is free to be as filthy, violent, and funny as it wants to be. And for anyone who’s read the series — or anything else by Ennis, for that matter — the show will definitely want to be all three of those things.
The news of The Boys’ renewal comes a week before the series is set to launch, meaning the House of Bezos is confident enough that its irreverent superhero drama will connect with audiences, so it’s gone ahead and green-lit another season. The news isn’t too surprising, as the rumored casting of You’re the Worst star Aya Cash as Stormfront was making the rounds across the internet not too long ago. At any rate the news was made official at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. Amazon released the news in an official statement, which also included the following synopsis:
“The Boys is a fun and irreverent take on what happens when superheroes – who are as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as Gods – abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the super powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about The Seven, and Vought – the multi-billion dollar conglomerate that manages these superheroes and covers up all of their dirty secrets. The Boys are Hughie (Jack Quaid, The Hunger Games), Billy Butcher (Karl Urban, Star Trek), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso, Detroit), Frenchie (Tomer Capon, Hostages), and The Female (Karen Fukuhara, Suicide Squad). Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) guest stars as Hughie’s father.”
As studios, networks, and streaming services scramble to acquire the latest superhero franchise, Amazon may have done them all one better by getting such a divergent take on the superhero industry and locking it down for at least two seasons. Fans eager to see Butcher and Hughie do battle with Homelander and Queen Maeve have only a week to wait.
The Boys premieres Friday, July 26 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.