‘The Boys’: The Story Behind the Source Material, a TV Spinoff & More

The Boys Comics
Amazon Studios

This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy Special Collector’s Issue, which is available for international pre-order online at SciFi2021.com and available nationwide on newsstands now.

Written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Darick Robertson, The Boys launched in 2006 under DC Comics’ Wildstorm imprint. It was filled with extreme violence and very adult content (superheroes snorting coke?!) and was abruptly canceled after just six issues.

Weeks later, the R-rated stories found a new home with the publishing company Dynamite Entertainment, which relaunched the series in May 2007 and ran it until 2012. Along the way, there was a six-part miniseries named “Herogasm,” set at Vought’s bacchanalian superhero vacation retreat, that will factor into Season 3. And last year, Hughie and Starlight returned in an eight-issue follow-up series titled “Dear Becky.”

The Boys Season 1 Queen Maeve Homelander

(Credit: Amazon Studios)

Even More Boys

The Vought Cinematic Universe isn’t the only property with potential for additional content! The Boys itself is starting to spin out some new material, beginning with Seven on 7 on VNN. This digital series, available on YouTube, is designed as news segments from Vought International’s fictional media outlet, Vought News Network (VNN).

It features smarmy anchor Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison) delivering propaganda puff pieces about the Seven, anti-government attacks, and ads for products by vaguely racist types who equate white sheets with freedom. In addition, there is also talk of a Boys spinoff set at America’s only college for superheroes (we imagine they’re pretty good at keg stands…).

Brockmire’s Reina Hardesty, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Jaz Sinclair and The Rookie’s Lizze Broadway are among those attached to star, should the in-development project from Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television move forward.

The Boys, Season 3, TBA, Prime Video