Comic-Con@Home: ‘The Boys’ Season 2 Previews Whale Chase And Announces Season 3(!)

The Boys‘s second season is very close to release, but that doesn’t mean the cast and showrunner can’t have a Comic-Con@Home presentation or take the occasion to announce a third season.
Showrunner Eric Kripke promises a “more emotional” and “crazier” season. Picking up from the Season 1 finale, the Boys are still on the run, but they still have their sights on Vought. Meanwhile, Homelander (Anthony Starr) continues to become unhinged, leaving Starlight (Erin Moriarty) as the only member of the Seven with any sort of morality. Oh, sure, new member Stormfront (Aya Cash) has a morality, but its not anything anyone would call moral. Those who have read the book will know why this is the case. Those readers will also know that things are about to get serious.
But proving the show still has its dark humor streak, Kripke presented a scene in which Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) drives a boat straight into a sperm whale. It’s bloody and funny.
“It’s certainly the strangest thing I think most of us have done in our career,” Urban said. He noted the boat shots were done for real. “We were having fun … except for Jack [Quaid.]”
Karen Fukuhara, who plays Kimko (aka the Female) admitted to getting sea-sick while Urban was driving the boat, to which he responded, “No showrunner would put his cast into danger.”
The whale was also practical, leading to Urban teasing the Boys may end up inside of it. “It was stinky,” he said.
Quaid said no one made fun of him for getting drenched in blood after they shot that scene.
Of course, the comedy of a whale death counterpoints more dramatic elements, like Butcher trying to rescue his wife from Homelander and, as Urban put it, “how much he’s willing to sacrifice” to get the job done. “There’s a certain evolution to Butcher,” he added. “He has a choice to make that will get him closer to Rebecca, but it will again jeopardize the team.”
According to Starr, Homelander’s situation will switch from external to internal as he tries to connect with people. But considering he murdered the only person he had any true connection with, it seems unlikely he can find that kinship. For his part, Starr admitted that every time Homelander does something “deranged,” it leads to a fun day on set.
Laz Alonso felt it was important for the series to examine why Mother’s Milk risks his life to be part of the Boys. “Garth [Ennis] molded him after the crack babies in the ’80s,” Alonso said. In the books, he is addicted to Compound V, but Kripke chose not to use this aspect of the comics. “In our vision, that’s not the case, so what is he infected with? He’s infected with being a fighter for freedom,” Alonzo explained. What this means for his family will be part of his Season 2 story.
For Hughie (Quaid), the new season will see the character feeling isolated thanks to Butcher’s departure and the general inability to contact Starlight. According to Quaid, it will leave Hughie asking himself if he should keep the fight against the Seven going. “In Season 1, he latches onto a lot of people who tell him what to do … In Season 2, he’s starting to realize how he can do that on his own,” he added. Those new thoughts will lead to a confrontation of sorts with Butcher. Well, once Butcher returns to the Boys.
Starlight, “steps into her own power” according to Moriarty. “She’s forced to adapt to the dark world she’s exposed to.” It will lead to unlikely team-ups, like one with Butcher, and the blackmailing of the insecure A-Train (Jesse T. Usher). “Her objectives stay the same, but she hardens a lot. She builds up a wall … that’s almost too thick to compensate,” she said.
Chace Crawford, who plays The Deep, “answered” a special question from a dolphin before revealing his character will escape exile in Sandusky, Ohio, though it will not necessarily lead him back to the Seven. “Being in Ohio was tough for him,” he said. “I think he was finally confronted with his own inner turmoil … and he was ripe for getting pulled into a certain spiritual journey. And there’s some humor interrelated in there.” But before his exile ends, “someone from his past” will appear.
For all the personal dramas and being “character-forward,” Kripke said the show is “reflective” of the current era, and therefore it will confront white nationalism. But more on that when the show gets closer to release.
To wrap things up, executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg appeared to announce Amazon has renewed the series for a third season — a first for the service and comic book-based programs. Rogen hopes to film the third year “sometimes this decade.”
The Boys debuts September 4th on Amazon.