The Boys Season 2 [EXCLUSIVE]
The second season of the American superhero television series The Boys, the first series in the franchise based on the comic book series of the same name written by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, was developed for television by American writer and television producer Eric Kripke. The season was produced by Sony Pictures Television in association with Point Grey Pictures, Original Film, Kripke Enterprises, Kickstart Entertainment and KFL Nightsky Productions.
The Boys Season 2
The show's second season stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Kapon, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie and Aya Cash. The story continues the conflict between the two groups with the eponymous Boys, now with the aid of Starlight continuing their efforts to defeat Vought despite being wanted by the government. The conflict is worsened when Butcher learns that Becca is still alive and is being held captive by Vought with a superpowered son fathered by Homelander. Butcher is attempting to rescue his wife from Vought. Stormfront, a new superhero with a secret past, joins the Seven and subtly promotes her message throughout the world, with the hopes of convincing an unwitting Homelander to lead Supes to world domination.
Unlike the previous season, the season released its episodes on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on a weekly basis with the first three episodes premiering on September 4, 2020, and the rest running until October 9, 2020. The season received record viewership for Amazon Prime and critical acclaim, with high praise towards the humor, themes, screenplay, storyline, and performances, especially Urban, Starr, and Cash. It also became the best reviewed superhero show of the year. On July 23, 2020, the series was renewed for a third season and several spin-offs, forming a franchise.[1]
On July 19, 2019, just a week before the first season's release at the San Diego Comic-Con@Home it was announced that Amazon Prime Video renewed the series for a second season.[15][16][17] Kripke alongside other writers had already begun to work in the scripts, just two days before the confirmation of the renewal. Kripke admitted feeling stressed while writing the second season feeling that it took a lot of tiptoeing around expectations for the hit's sophomore outing. The scripts were completed in November 2019.[18][19] New Zealand actor Karl Urban confirmed through a post on his Instagram account that production has wrapped and revealed that the second season would premiere on mid-2020.[20]
In an interview Kripke revealed that for the second season, the eponymous team of the show would be wanted criminals that are being hunted and that Homelander will be now free from the control of Stillwell. He teased that for the season it was expected to feature issues like white nationalism, white supremacy, systemic racism, xenophobia, and how the people trying to convey these hateful ideologies would be using the new forms of communication like social media to pass these ideas: "I will admit that I'm pretty angry about the way things are, and one advantage that I don't take for granted is I have a show that I can put some of my feelings into. I would say that there might be even a little more of the topical issues this season because the writers are a little angrier as well."[21] The scripts were written during the period of the election season in 2018, where the president shared his fears of the immigrants jeopardizing the American life, a major theme that would be explored in the show.[22] The season introduces Stormfront, a character whom Kripke was already planning to introduce for the second season even though before the show was renewed, but Kripke revealed that the character would be gender swapped for the show.[23][24] He explained that the character "has a very hateful ideology, but they were really interested in modernizing it and how it's sort of often expressed today."[25] It was confirmed that the show would consist of eight episodes like the previous season.[26]
Kripke teased that the first season cliffhanger ending would set up for something bigger for the season: "Once you end up on that season 1 cliffhanger, you know that's going to be a big part of season 2, you know that Stillwell's death is going to be a big part of season 2, and superheroes being in the military." Unlike the comics where Becca is killed when she gives birth, in the series she eventually survives and is being held captive by Vought with his son. He revealed that Becca was not killed due to not wanting to use the overused convention of killing off female characters to motivate the heroes and it was also used as an opportunity to surprise readers of the comics by changing the story Becca. Another major change is Becca's child, who in the comics he was killed by Billy when the infant attacked him with his laser eyes. Kripke revealed that he changed this for the following reason: "You have this kid who's half human and half monster; half the person Butcher loves most in the world and half the person Butcher hates most in the world. That's just too perfect a character to not keep alive."[27] In the series the child is named Ryan and grows with his mother under the captivity of Vought, who has the potential of developing the same powers of Homelander.[28]
A major theme that is portrayed in the show is the white supremacy and how it affects the life of several people, with Kripke discussing how the strong character are the priority number one with The Boys, though the team tries to include commentary pertaining to the real world: "We're going after white nationalism in Season 2. We're going after systemic racism in Season 2. And all of those things really fucking suck."[29] In an interview Kripke explains the portrayal of the xenophobia and white supremacy in the show and how major corporations are in part responsible of this: "[Between season 1 and season 2], we got deeper and deeper into the administration, and I think we as the writers got angrier and angrier. I think there were things like the travel ban happened when we were starting to break season 2, and a lot of the fear of caravans coming over the border to destroy you, and putting children in cages. That made us really want to talk about how white nationalism, and using xenophobia to further their own interests. Corporations are just letting it happen." Another theme that the show portrays is the feminism, as Stormfront is portrayed as a feminist who sticks up for the harangued women of The Seven even though she is also portrayed as a racist and xenophobic superhero.[30] It is considered that the show portrays the feminism and succeeds where the MCU fails, as it illustrated the importance of women to the superhero genre as the female characters become stronger as the show progresses.[31]
The season also makes the introduction of Stormfront, the newest member of The Seven. However unlike the comics where the character is male, it was revealed that in the series would be portrayed as a female 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." For the introduction of the character, Kripke decided to introduce the character initially as a calm and likable character with the intention of hiding her true colors until the third episode, with the intention of reflecting of how people are not always what they seem in the social media or the public.[32] He revealed that the reason of why decided to introduce the character for the season, was to explain the nationalism and xenophobia to reflect it of how this concepts affect a lot of people in the real life. The character has been described as a very evil racist character who use racial slurs that is willing to kill people of color if she can get away with it, including innocent people.[33]
Karl Urban, Erin Moriarty, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Dominique McElligot, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara, and Nathan Mitchell reprised their roles from the first season as Billy Butcher, Starlight, Hughie Campbell, Homelander, Queen Maeve, A-Train, Mother's Milk, The Deep, Frenchie, The Female, and Black Noir respectively.[4] In July 2019, Aya Cash closed a deal with Amazon to join the show as Stormfront,[34][35] though it was not until March 2020, when it was confirmed that Cash would be forming part of the second season showing the first look of her character.[36][37] Shantel VanSanten also reprises her role as Becca Butcher in a more expanded role than the previous season. She revealed that season two explores how she manages to reunite with Billy, but then being pulled apart as she is killed at the end of the season ton conclude her storyline for good: "I trust their storytelling and I know that there's so much of wherever it goes, especially for Ryan, that Becca will always be a part of it, and a part of Butcher and a part of Ryan and they'll go on to honor that, just as though we do for people that we've lost."[8]
Elisabeth Shue returned as a guest star on the fourth episode titled "Nothing Like It in the World", as a doppelgänger of Madelyn Stillwell.[13] On September 5, 2019, Goran Višnjić and Claudia Doumit were cast in recurring roles for the second season.[11] A month later, Patton Oswalt was announced to be part of the show for an unspecified role.[38] Giancarlo Esposito was confirmed to reprise his role as Stan Edgar, with Kripke revealing that he would have an expanded role for the season.[9] Esposito explained that his character was not afraid of Homelander: "I don't believe Stan Edgar has any fear of Homelander at all. And when I was doing the scene, I thought, 'Just think in regards to being very calm, and dealing with a child, but with respect.' But also, you can't forget the vision of how Homelander could take you out. So in the back of my mind, I've got Compound V in my blood, so I'm not worried at all."[10] On August 10, 2020, it was reported that Shawn Ashmore joined the cast as Lamplighter for the second season.[12] In September 2020, it was confirmed that John Noble would be making a guest appearance in the seventh episode of the season as Billy's father Sam Butcher.[14] 041b061a72