Superhero Satire: How a show about superheroes has kept its finger on the pulse.
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“Garth Ennis, the author, he was just really interested in using the superheroes to rip apart society and celebrity culture, to satirize it brutally,” says The Boys Executive Producer, Showrunner, and Writer Eric Kripke of the man behind the comics that the acclaimed Prime Video series is based on. “He always said it was about what would happen if you combine the worst of celebrity with the worst of politics.”
“And then that happened,” added Executive Producer Seth Rogen.
In Season 3, The Boys focuses a laser on cultural, racial, and sexual politics with more of a razor-sharp, biting tone than ever—to poignant and sometimes scathing results.
Antony Starr, who plays the toxic, corrupt alpha cape Homelander, adds, “I think the show started off as a superhero show with elements of satire, and it’s progressively gotten deeper into the satire and into the social and political commentary that presents itself in this world. I mean, we’re not bound by the moral true north most superhero shows are bound to.”
“Look, [in] the real world, good people do bad things all the time. Bad people do good things all the time. Nothing is black and white,” adds Starr. “Starlight [played by Erin Moriarty] in Season 3 was blackmailing people,” continues Starr. “The story of the Butcher and Homelander—they both know that some of the things that they are hands-on doing are wrong, but they’re for the greater good.”
Moriarty adds that Starlight/Annie January is a female, driven superhero “who f**ks up, who also has issues that we can all relate to. And I think the more and more we show worlds like The Boys and take advantage of these circumstances and have these moments that are hilarious and so entertaining and these moments that are so dark—the more the issues that we’re all mad about become mainstream in terms of, like, just conversations, they become less taboo. We talk about them more.”
For the self-indulgent speedster A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), taking a look in the mirror at who he is to the African-American community, his family, and himself proves a harsh reality.
“He’s been playing this game for so long that he started to believe that it’s actually real, that it’s actually true, and it’s not, you know,” says Usher of the power dynamics and discrimination that The Boys puts under a supe spotlight in Season 3. “It’s so far from that, and then every conversation he has with his brother, his brother just reminds him of how much of a fraud he is and it’s, it just tears him apart.”
Also in this episode, Costume Designer Michael Ground discusses the inspiration and making of the non-supersuit costumes throughout the season. Take a look.
