Before becoming the world’s number one subversive superhero show, Prime Video’s The Boys was originally pitched as a movie trilogy back in the naughties.
Way back in 2008, when The Dark Knight was the most popular superhero movie on the planet, director Adam McKay attempted to bring The Boys to the big screen. However, his proposed trilogy of movies ultimately failed to materialize, because audiences weren’t ready for it yet.
In 2008, The Boys comics were still being written by Garth Ennis. The main run began in 2006 and concluded in 2012 after 72 issues. So even when the movies were pitched, there was no definitive ending to the source material. Additionally, while superheroes were still popular, the genre wasn’t nearly as ubiquitous as it would become in the following years thanks to Marvel. Today, four of the top 10 highest-grossing movies ever are superhero flicks.
Per Rolling Stone, Sony did acquire the rights toThe Boys back in 2008, but the idea of actually developing the story into movies still felt far off, despite Adam McKay’s (Don’t Look Up, The Big Short) interest. Darick Robertson, the artist behind the comic, belives it was well worth the wait for Prime Video to give the comic its due.
“I wouldn’t change how it worked out, because the show is amazing,” he said. “But he was doing really cool stuff. It just came down to it being 2008, not 2018. I just don’t think they were ready for it yet.”
Alas, it never came to be. It was proposed a little too early, before the Marvel Cinematic Universe swept the box office. The audience wasn’t quite there yet.
Moreover, the success of The Boys is very much helped out by today’s political landscape. I mean, the fascist superhero Homelander is clearly inspired by Donald Trump. While actor Anthony Starr won’t explicitly say as much, he’ll certainly hint at it. “I think there’s a very obvious human being I know [The Boys writer] Eric [Kripke] has steered the character towards,” he told Deadline.
“I don’t mind references to the real world,” Starr told Discussing Film. “I think they’re really complimentary to the nature of the show”
The Boys season 4 continues weekly on Prime Video. The new episodes have had mixed reviews so far, but they’re still very much worth the watch!
