Amazon’s The Boys greenlit for season 3 and aftershow, + overview

Amazon’s The Boys greenlit for season 3 and aftershow.

The Boys‘ series creator Eric Kripke announced on Twitter: “SEASON 3 is GREENLIT! I’m in the virtual room with the writers now!” The tweet also features a new clip from the upcoming second season, set to premiere on September 4, 2020.  In addition to all that, the tweet reveals a new aftershow for The Boys, with Aisha Tyler to host.

As Deadline elaborates: “Aisha Tyler will host and exec produce The Boys aftershow Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys, featuring members of the cast, creative team and other special guests.”

This will make “The Boys” a little bit more like other series like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, which also have employed aftershows. Why is season 3 already in development? Well, let’s take another look at what worked so well in season 1.

More from Amazon Prime

• Upload season 3, episode 2 recap: “Strawberry”
• What happens in The Boys season 4 official teaser trailer?
• Upload season 3, episode 1 recap: “Ticking Clock”
• Add these 5 Holiday TV show Funko Pops! to your holiday wish list
• What we know about The Boys season 4 so far, thanks to Twitter/X

Basics of The Boys

The series is written by creator Eric Kripke and his creative team, including people like George Mastras, Anne Cofell Saunders, and Rebecca Sonnenshine. It is based on the comic book by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.

The first season of The Boys premiered on July 26, 2019, on Amazon Prime. Season 2 was announced before the first season even premiered, and season 3 is receiving even bigger treatment.

The series follows a ragtag group of vigilantes trying to control malevolent superheroes, known as The Seven. The Seven works for a commercial entity known as Vought International.

Though the primary antagonist in the first season was The Seven’s Superman-esque Homelander (Antony Starr), Vought’s Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) was shrewd in her own right. In fact, sometimes The Boys themselves arguably cross the line into villainy, further subverting concepts of hero worship.

The Boys are Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, Laz Alonso as “Mother’s Milk,” Tomer Capon as Frenchie, and Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko. The rest of The Seven have also included Erin Moriarty as Annie January/Starlight, Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve, Jessie T. Usher as A-Train, Alex Hassell as Translucent, and Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir.

Interesting elements of The Boys

What they lack is a sense of strategic cunning, The Boys make up for in attitude and perseverance. It’s not that they have no tactical imagination, but they’re often subject to their own whims and impulses. This sort of mirrors how The Seven’s flaws are amplified as well. At the end of the day, even superhumans are still “human” in their judgment. They focus on what they can see, instead of what they can’t, and make it a game of holding territory.

Things get complicated, though, as The Boys must also be skilled at avoiding fights with The Seven (who they see as an enemy force), due to the whole superpower thing. The Boys may have some skill and luck with skirmishing, but they have much to chew with elements of espionage, killing smugglers, and that sort of thing. Scoundrels definitely have a place in The Seven, but The Boys often enough look like a goon squad.

If you pair the two groups together, it seems both could be on the brink of being destroyed. All they need is a little bit of bad luck and then all their problems will swallow them whole.

That could even be the fate of the Seven, as we’ve seen them being mired in corruption, including Homelander’s involvement in crafting supervillains for them to fight. Then, of course, you have the addiction to Compound V, the bizarre concoction which generates superpowered humans.

The parody element

Superhero stories hinge a lot on simplified “good vs. evil” dynamics. That, of course, applies to actual political beliefs involving war. The truth is often a lot messier. When it comes to The Boys, they might get a lucky strike in a battle, but all hell breaks loose and the entire world comes to an end if they make too many missteps — and the first season offered mere glimpses into what Supes like Homelander can do.

At times, Vought seems like a corporate prison, with Madelyn Stillwell’s judgment dominated by careerism. This subplot works its way through certain characters refusing to be humbled. In fact, Homelander does his best to convince fans that he would save the entire universe, with the paradox that his sociopathic mentality will likely place it in such danger.

What are your thoughts on The Boys? Let us know in the comments!