Posted in: Amazon Studios, streaming, TV, YouTube | Tagged: amazon, eric kripke, herogasm, prime video, season 3, the boys

The Boys: Eric Kripke Explains Why "Herogasm" Isn't a Cinemax Movie

The third season of Amazon's The Boys manages to outdo itself every episode… and this week's episode "Herogasm" is no exception. Behind all the mind-searing, V24-addicted, supes douchebaggery is Executive Producer & showrunner Eric Kripke (Supernatural, Timeless). Self-proclaimed comic book geek Kripke cites such subversive works as The Sandman, Hellblazer, and Watchmen as the gateway to his appreciation of the genre rather than traditional superhero comics. Recently, while promoting the upcoming season, Kripke took some time for a brief chat with Bleeding Cool to discuss the highly-anticipated episode. In it, we find our heroes at their darkest, at a time that many would call the "all is lost" part of this story. Kripke discusses his approach to keeping that delicate balance between comedy and darkness of this supes saga. And a quick heads-up that we're getting into minor spoilers territory so be warned…

Erik Kripke: Obviously 'Herogasm' is outrageous and infamous from the comics. We were hungry to put it in because it's such a well-known part of the comic. But that said, like everything in the show, it's like it's a little bit of a Trojan horse. What was really functional about 'Herogasm' was it was a big enough event that many of our characters could come together and crash into each other. It's rare to have an event that you could get Homelander [Antony Starr], Butcher [Karl Urban], Soldier Boy [Jensen Ackles], MM [Laz Alonso], Hughie [Jack Quaid], Annie [Erin Moriarty], The Deep [Chase Crawford], and A-Train [Jessie T. Usher] all in one spot. That's really hard, narratively. It was inevitable that once we had such a big event that would draw all of these characters crashing into each other, a lot of emotional things were going to happen. A lot of things we've been waiting a really long time for like Hughie and A-Train standing off and obviously this big Soldier Boy/ Butcher/ Homelander fight. It's always really important that you just never be that shocking and outrageous. You have to ground it. Finding the moments of humanity and pathos and danger and tension, in the middle of all that, I think it's actually not just an important balance, but I think it's actually crucial to it working. Without it, you know, you're making a fucking Cinemax movie, right? I really need that stuff so you can see you can ground it and it can elevate. 

Amazon's The Boys S03E06 "Herogasm" is currently dropping jaws on Prime Video as you read this so make sure to check it out:

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