Posted in: Amazon Studios, streaming, Trailer, TV | Tagged: amazon, diabolical, eric kripke, interview, prime video, the boys

The Boys EP Eric Kripke Talks "Diabolical" Heart, Humor & Homelander

The Boys Presents: Diabolical is an eight-episode animated anthology series that expands the Emmy-nominated universe of Amazon and showrunner & EP Eric Kripke's The Boys, shining a bright, twisted light on those all-too-human, very flawed people who find themselves with extraordinary powers as they struggle to… well… get their s**t together. Each episode has its own writer and animation style, exploring unseen stories from within the show's canon universe, the comic book universe, and beyond- all brought to life by some of the most creative and bloody brilliant minds in entertainment today. Helping oversee all of the mind-searing, Compound V-fueled action is Kripke. The self-proclaimed comic book geek cites such subversive works as The Sandman, Hellblazer, and Watchmen as his comics influences more than traditional superhero comics. Garth Ennis's Preacher was life-changing for the executive producer so it is not surprising that he feels "a real giddy joy" bringing the world of The Boys to life. 

After the show became a hit, Kripke and fellow producers began considering what would be good spinoff ideas. One idea he loved was using an animated anthology as an incubator for the show. Without committing to an entire series, he would be able to try the wildest possible ideas and see if they work. Once COVID hit and faced with the potential for some delays, Kripke started to get pretty aggressive about pitching the stopgap show that would tide fans over to Amazon, and they were sold.  Hoping to strike the appetites of The Boys fans, Kripke and showrunner Simon Racioppa began reaching out to a number of familiar faces to both write and voice the project. 

"Bringing in Garth Ennis to write one from the world of his books, that isn't even the universe of the show. It is totally his universe, that was something I really wanted to do from the beginning because I came in to adapt these books from the first place. I am just a fan of Garth and what he had done in The Boys. I'm a bigger fan of The Boys than almost anybody, to be able to actually bring that world to life is a really giddy joy for me and Seth [Rogan] and Evan [Goldberg]," Kripke explained about the animated anthology and the universe from which it comes from. "We really wanted to work with Justin Roiland because to me, Rick and Morty is among the best shows on television, period. Not just animated, not just comedy, just a truly amazing show. Seth [Rogan] and Evan [Goldberg] were reaching out to some of their fancy Hollywood friends. I was really stunned to find how many people were actually fans of The Boys and wanted to be involved. Brilliant people, Andy Samberg and Awkwafina, it's just mind-blowing to me. Ilana Glazer. There was really no rule at all. We would just say what story are you interested in telling and what style do you want it to be? We just gave them the freedom to completely run wild. I think that shows and the work. Everyone went pretty crazy in the best possible way."

It adds a lot to have different stories and different animation styles. Does that help speed up the production time, possibly having multiple people working on the different styles at the same time?

EK: No. It actually makes it a lot harder and more complicated because even though you have different styles and different people can be working on them in parallel. I'm new to animation. Simon [Racioppa] and Giancarlo [Volpe], the showrunner and director, really understand this. I'm a tourist. When you do a normal animation, you're only signing off on one group of characters and one style, and one group of backgrounds and worlds. Here we are doing eight different styles, starting from scratch all over again. Even our Homelanders [Antony Star] had to be designed differently from one to the other. It actually ended up being a ton more work, but we thought it was worth it. We really wanted to do something that felt really unique. We all really wanted it to have each episode to be completely, a unique work of art

There were no rules, whatever story they wanted to tell, they could even make up their own characters. Did anybody present anything that you felt was too much, that you had to ask them to pull it back a little? 

EK: If we're willing to approve a character named 'Ranch Dressing Cum Squirter', that tells you that there's really nothing we're going to reject. We needed it to be tied into the universe somehow, either through the corporation, Vought, or Compound V. We needed the stories to be good. One thing that I really love about The Boys is it always takes people by surprise that it has substance and emotion, we really care about getting that stuff right. Beyond the shocking moments, we wanted to make sure there was human emotion at the core of these stories and that there was something real going on and we weren't just being insane just to be insane. Justin's short, which is as insane as they get, it's still about those characters really trying to get some self-esteem. We said, use characters from the world or don't. Keep it any tone you want. A perfect example of that is when we met with Andy Samberg. Obviously, we were expecting him to pitch something funny. He pitched this really heartbreaking story about another Korean couple where the wife is dying of cancer. We took a beat and said, great, that sounds great, run with that ball. We wanted to give all the people who were gracious enough to work with us, all the freedom they wanted to experiment.

I know you can't pick a favorite but did any of these episodes make you laugh more than any of the other ones? 

EK: They're all wonderful. I have a particular affection for Aquafina's about the sentient poo. From the beginning, we were writing it and developing it as if it were E.T. There was this real connection between this little girl and her talking, sentient shit. She wrote a really tight, sharp script. It's got a good arc. It wraps out in the sewer, which is the home of shit. I actually love it as a piece of writing, but they're all great. Justin's blew me away. Simon's, about the Homelander's backstory ['One Plus One Equals Two'], that one is canon. He didn't necessarily set out to write canon, but after reading the script and talking about it, I said, This definitely happened in the universe.

The Boys Presents: Diabolical, currently streaming exclusively on Prime Video, comes from Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television Studios, with Titmouse, Kripke Enterprises, Original Film, and Point Grey Pictures

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