Amazon’s irreverent new superheroes series The Boys is conquering fans’ hearts thanks to its edgy comedy. During a recent Reddit AMA, The Boys co-creator Erik Kripke revealed that Amazon strongly opposed one scene from the R-rated series, one that involved Anthony Starr’s Homelander pulling down his pants and… relieving himself over New York City. If you know what we mean, and we think you do.
“There was one scene that Amazon said, ‘F*** no you have to cut,’” Kripke said. “I couldn’t quite understand why considering everything else we have in the show.” Then he clarified. “Homelander, after being dressed down by Stilwell (Elisabeth Shue) in episode 2, was standing on one of the Chrysler building Eagles. He pulled his pants down and started j***ing off, mumbling ‘I can do whatever I want’ over and over again until he climaxed all over New York City. Amazon seemed to think it wasn’t necessary. I thought it told me something about his psyche. To be clear, they’ve been great, that may have been the only fight I lost in Season 1.”
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The Boys is an irreverent take on what happens when superheroes, as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as gods, abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the super powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about the supergroup known as “The Seven.” The show retains most of the comic’s (available for purchase here) boundary-pushing violence and sexuality while exploring the dark side of superhero celebrity and fame.
The series stars Karl Urban (Star Trek, Judge Dredd) as Billy Butcher, the ringleader of the vigilantes who risk it all to go against a group of all-powerful characters. Jack Quaid plays Hughie, with Laz Alonso as Mother’s Milk, Tomer Kapon as Frenchie, Jennifer Esposito as CIA agent Susan L. Rayner, and Karen Fukuhara as the Female. Elisabeth Shue also co-stars in the series alongside Erin Moriarty, Antony Starr, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Chace Crawford, and Nathan Mitchell. Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen (AMC’s Preacher) produced, along with Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.
Darick Robertson (Happy), and Garth Ennis (Preacher) cocreated the source material, which ran for 72 issues between 2006 and 2012. It quickly earned popularity for its graphic nature, as Ennis sought to outdo the extreme violence and sexuality of Preacher.
Did Amazon make a bad call here, or the right decision? Do you hope to see the scene resurface later? Let us know what you think in comments.
