The Boys Writer on Hughie’s Dad, Butcher’s Bunny, Gen V Cameos and V52

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Episode 5 of Season 4 of “The Boys,” currently streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.

While Homelander (Antony Starr) and the supes were away at Vought’s V52 fan event (no intention not at all confused with Disney’s 23) in this week’s episode of “The Boys” starred Butcher (Karl Urban), Frenchie (Tomer Capone) and company with a group of crazy, cruel farm animals on a journey to find a super-killing virus.

Amid these two wild plot points was a more serious storyline: Hughie (Jack Quaid) and his recently returned mother Daphne (Rosemarie Dewitt) said goodbye to Hugh Sr. (Simon Pegg), when Hughie agreed to give his father a painless death. deliver him from his new misery. During the episode, Hugh Sr. struggling to control the destructive phasing superpower he acquired after Daphne gave him Compound V to snap him out of a coma. Hugh Sr. ended up accidentally killing several people in the hospital while in a dazed state.

Here, ‘The Boys’ showrunner Eric Kripke analyzes episode 5 of ‘The Boys’ Season 4, titled ‘Beware of the Jabberwock, My Son’ – including the cameos from ‘Gen V’.

Let’s start with the flying, bloody scenes featuring Compound V’d-up farm animals, as The Boys search for the super virus lab on Stan Edgar’s (Giancarlo Esposito) estate. How much of that was practical, if at all, and how much of that was visual effects?

There was very little practical. The bull was real, though Stephan Fleet and his VFX department made it look angrier – it was actually a very, very sweet animal. The chickens were usually real, except when they burst through people’s chests. And the sheep, other than that one shot where the barn door opens and the two sheep walk in – I think that’s the only time there were real sheep in that sequence. Big credit to our brilliant VFX team as it’s not easy to create a believable looking animal from scratch and turn it into a brand new monster. It was Stephan’s idea to give him baboon teeth; he has the jaws of a baboon, and that gives him his fangs and his menacing appearance.

Butcher has a special bond with the rabbit, because he was experimented on with Temp V – the thing that led to Butcher’s fatal prognosis – and freed him. He then stomps towards him to kill him later when he sees tentacles popping out of the rabbit’s belly. We know he used the same thing Butcher used, so what can you tease about what that means for Butcher, and why Butcher reacted so strongly to it?

It doesn’t mean anything good. I don’t want to give too much away, but I think Butcher is really starting to wonder what’s happening to him, and wondering how he could have killed Ezekiel. And this is a bit of rabbit foreshadowing.

Shortly afterwards, Butcher cuts off the leg of Vought scientist Sameer – nice to meet Victoria Neuman’s lover, and Zoe’s father, by the way – and kidnaps him along with Kessler. How much of Butcher’s drastic decision to have Sameer work on an even bigger virus was based on the bunny’s fate – and just happened to be placed next to Ryan (Cameron Crovetti)? This episode continues towards the Dark Side with Homelander?

That’s a very insightful point. The story for him in this episode is trying to stay on the straight and narrow and be loyal to his team. But then the rabbit and what happens to it – and maybe what happens to it it – it really confuses him a lot, and makes him feel a lot more desperate. So he gets Kessler involved and chops off a man’s leg to cover his tracks, which isn’t surprisingly rational behavior. I think he is really upset and afraid of what might happen to him.

Hughie’s father’s superpower – it’s always important how you all decide what a character’s power will be. What was the choice here for what Hugh Sr. would get if he were to have V in the hospital?

We really like it when powers can reflect their psychological state, or part of their deeply ingrained subconscious. I think it was a lesson we learned about “Gen V” that really served us well. So we got really interested in this idea of ​​him, based on his relationship with his estranged wife, that he felt very small. He has that line: “You would see right through me, as if I were invisible to you.” So giving him a power that made that metaphor concrete was something we were really interested in.

It’s super subtle, but it says something about the Campbell DNA that Hughie’s power is a teleporting power and Dad’s power is some kind of phasing power – but both are cousins ​​in a way. It was in the same stadium. In our minds, the power you get is a combination of V and your DNA. And so if he has the same DNA as his father, it stands to reason that his father might have similar power.

I’m going to move on to some very disturbing stuff with Hughie and his father: I’m going to call it the euthanasia scene. How did you decide that Hughie would do that?, and work with Jack Quaid and Simon Pegg on the meaning of that scene?

From the very beginning we wanted to make a version of that scene. Hughie is really growing up this year, and really learning to take ownership or leadership of the family is something that many children experience – like that moment when their parents care for them, and inevitably they take over caring for their parents. Everyone will experience it, and it is a very universal, painful experience. And it’s the moment when so many people say, “Oh yeah, that was when I actually grew up, when I became my parents’ parent.” I thought this was something very universal for Hughie, and difficult.

The problem with Hughie is that when we talk about this season, we’re dealing with everyone’s core trauma, and his biggest problem is his inability to let anyone go. And he really learns this season by forgiving A-Train and by forgiving his mother and really letting go of his father, he really learns to grow up. They start the episode with his father saying, “You’re still that same kid who couldn’t let go of the cat.” And we end the episode with Hughie stepping up and making the tough decisions that the other older family members can’t make. So it just shows that he’s growing into real adulthood.

You bring “Gen V” characters Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) and Sam Riordan (Asa Germann) for cameos in this episode. Why did you choose to cross over now during season 4 of “The Boys”? And What should their appearance tell us about what’s going on in the current timeline at Godolkin University – and where the other “Gen V” characters might be now?

Makes sense now because of the V52 story, and that Homelander would use V52 as a cover to bring various superheroes close to him as he begins to assemble this army. And it made sense that Cate, who is also a supremacist, would want to sign off on that. I think Sam is a little more reserved, but he doesn’t really speak his own mind either – he still has to evolve into that as a character.

But in terms of what it means, as is typical in the Vought universe, the characters who were really the villains of the time, Cate and Sam, are packaged by Vought as the heroes, and they get a movie and they get new levels of fame. , while the real heroes of the day are locked away in a secret location that will be revealed for ‘Gen V’ Season 2. Exactly our similar message that being a hero is usually an unsung, thankless thing, and when you’re held up as a hero standing up for everyone, you’re usually anything but.

Related to V52 – and that’s obvious complete not related to a real-life event that a company is doing – have you heard from anyone at Marvel right now, whether free or otherwise, about jokes on the show?

I heard very casually and in passing that Marvel executives watch and like the show. But I didn’t get any names or anyone – just someone mentioned it to me in passing. I think it was done with great pleasure. Like I said, I watch all the Marvel movies. I dig them. The amount of content alone is worth having a little fun with.

During V52, they explained the projects in Phase 7-19 of the Vought Cinematic Universe. How many of these titles will be Vought+ exclusives, and how many will head to theaters?

Well, let’s face it, at least half of them will be canceled due to the write-off, and then some will appear on Vought+, and then very few will appear in theaters. It just seems to be the way the business is these days.

This interview has been edited and condensed.