Posted in: Amazon Studios, Preview, streaming, Trailer, TV, YouTube | Tagged: amazon, Amazon Prime, bleeding cool, Blood, buthcer, cable, eric kripke, Homelander, Hughie, Laz Alonso, Mother's Milk, preview, prime video, season 3, streaming, teaser, television, the boys, The Seven, trailer, tv

The Boys: Laz Alonso on Darker, Bloodier Season 3; Soldier Boy Factor

While we're not looking to throw any bad mojo into the "Karmasphere," we've been feeling cautiously optimistic about the production updates we've been getting from a number of shows that have either cross their season/series filming finish line or are moving towards it at a pretty steady pace. Thankfully, we can now add Amazon Prime's The Boys to that list, with series star Laz Alonso (aka Mother's Milk) offering some very promising updates and teases. During a recent interview with Collider in support of his upcoming film The Wrath of Man, revealed that production is rolling along with no COVID-related pauses and a strict on-set testing regiment and that they were "between one-fourth of the way through and halfway through" shooting Season 3. But there has been one big difference in that showrunner and executive producer Eric Kripke hasn't been able to be on set because of COVID-related travel restrictions between U.S. and Canada. Here's a look at some other highlights:

Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy Will Take Things to Dark Places: While the season will continue to be rooted in story, the addition of Ackles' supe from Vought's past helped Kripke take the series into "darker and darker" territory. Alonso explained that the introduction of Slider Boy "allowed [Kripke] to not only bring in a character historically who's pretty dark, but it also makes all of the other ensemble Supes darker as well."

A Darker Season 3 Also Brings a Bloodier Season 3: So you think things like exploding heads and speedboat-impaled whales raised the blood factor for the series? Alonso teases that viewers haven't seen anything yet- and he's getting his info from a very reliable source. "I'll put it to you this way. I was talking to the head makeup artist and she's in charge of ordering the blood — that's one of her many jobs," the actor said. "She told me that all of Season 2… When you talk about bulk, I don't think they used over a gallon of blood in Season 2, believe it or not. Season 3, we're already at three and a half gallons of blood. So that should give you a little indication of where it's going."

Kripke and Craig Rosenberg (director of S03E01 "Payback") are also working on a pilot (expected to get a series order soon) for a spinoff series based on a Vought-sponsored college for the best of the best supes-wise. Though still in development with casting underway (see below), Kripke had some details to offer during an interview with THR. First, Kripke wants fans to know that the series isn't the result of Amazon looking to milk the franchise for all it's worth: this was the team's idea. "First, it didn't come from Amazon telling us, 'Hey, you're a hit, you must do a lot more of the same.' It came from me, [The Boys EPs] Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Craig Rosenberg just talking. We stumbled on to this corner of the universe that we really loved and we took it to them," Kripke explained.

As for the concept of the series (which strikes us as a cross between medical school students finding out where their residencies and college athletes getting drafted to pro teams), Kripke was able to elaborate on the different "supes perspective" viewers will have. 'It's a Vought-owned college where young kids with powers are trained as to how to be proper superheroes, all leading to an NBA-style draft at the end of the year. It's sort of like a college sports show meets Fame, because they also have to go to acting classes and marketing classes. It's going to be a very character-driven, hopefully incredibly realistic, college show," he explained.

Lizzie Broadway (The Rookie, Bones) and Jaz Sinclair (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Shane Paul McGhie (Deputy, Greenleaf), Aimee Carrero (Elena of Avalor, Young & Hungry), and Maddie Phillips (Teenage Bounty Hunters), and Reina Hardesty (Brockmire) have been cast as young Supes attending America's only college exclusively for those with special powers (run by Vought International, of course). The series will explore the lives of hormonal, competitive Supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test- competing for the best contracts in the best cities.

Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television are set to produce, in association with Point Grey Pictures, Kripke Enterprises, Original Film, and NightSky Productions. Rosenberg will pen the pilot and serve as executive producer/showrunner on The Boys spinoff as part of his overall deal with Sony Pictures TV. The Boys developer/executive producer Kripke and fellow EPs, Point Grey Pictures' Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver; Original Film's Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty; and Ken F. Levin and Jason Netter also executive produce

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