Posted in: Amazon Studios, Paramount+, TV | Tagged: Dutton Ranch, the boys, yellowstone

The Boys Sound Designer on Kripke, "Stranger Things" Moment & More

Sound designer Russell Topal discussed working on the final two seasons of The Boys, why "King of Hell" felt like Stranger Things, and more.

Russell Topal has accomplished a lot in his nearly 15-year career as a sound engineer since his debut in the 2012 sports drama Crooked Arrows. He's had several memorable projects with over 125+ projects to his name including several notable works like Rick & Morty, BoJack Horseman, Black Dynamite, Swiss Army Man (2016), CSI: Cyber, Animal Kingdom, Outlander, Riverdale, What We Do in the Shadows, Doctor Sleep (2019), Jack Ryan, Frozen II (2019), the Fear Street trilogy, Midnight Mass, Call of Duty franchise, Yellowstone franchise, KPop Demon Hunters, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (2025), and The Boys. The sound designer spoke with Bleeding Cool about working on the Eric Kripke-created series for the final two seasons, the creative process he bounced off between sound editor Wade Barnett and Kripke, how a season five episode reminded him of Stranger Things, and the biggest differences between working on such an intense action-packed series like The Boys compared to the much more subtle, Yellowstone universe with his current spinoff Dutton Ranch.

The Boys Sound Designer Russell Topal on Finding the Right Combinations of Sounds for Superhero Series

BC: How has working on 'The Boys' challenged you as a sound designer?

Topal: Mainly with time, nowadays any sound designer, or rather anyone in film or TV will tell you, "Time is never on our side or rarely on our site," so, being that 'The Boys' is a very heavy design show and you're very busy with gun battles and superhero sounds, and creating those elements in a short amount of time is definitely the most challenging part of it.

Since you joined in season four, was there an approach that you had differently in the final season?

I don't want to say, "easier," but I knew the show better, obviously, since I had done the previous season. There were a few recurring elements that I could use without starting from scratch, so I didn't have to build everything from the ground up all over again, and I didn't have to spend time learning the show before I started, as I had to do in season four, when I was new to everything. I had to investigate the material that was previously done and really dive into the work that wasn't my own to really figure out what the style was. That was preferred before I started: get into the mindset of the show and really learn how to streamline things to move forward as quickly as possible.

Did you work directly with Eric Kripke to transition into that? How did that go down?

No, I mainly worked with Wade Barnett, the supervising sound editor, who, aside from his job, was the liaison between Eric and myself. I would design several options for a character and send them to Wade. Wade would send it off to Eric, Eric would give his notes, and then back and forth. There was quite a bit of that throughout the season since all the superhero designs are very subjective, and there wasn't necessarily one right sound. It was what he liked the best. That's why I would give them maybe like three or four different versions per superhero design, and we would either land on one or combine two together to make a new one, or he would say, "I like the number three the best, but can we do this and this?" I would just adjust that, and then we would move forward from there. It would evolve throughout the season as well.

What was the most difficult sequence you've worked on this season? Did you have a personal favorite from your time on the show?

My personal favorite was the character of Quinn (Kris Hagen), which was this plant-like, mutated character that was in episode six ("King of Hell"), when they're in this abandoned medical facility. He's stuck to the wall with these veins, which reminded me of 'Stranger Things,' and these particles flying everywhere. That was a challenge, because I mean, it was fun to create this like pulsing and breathing element to the character that needed to be rhythmic and stay consistent, but the visual effects kept changing, so we needed to be in sync with the visuals while maintaining a sense of rhythm and sync since it was his body pulsing and breathing in a certain way. So, keeping that rhythm while staying in sync was challenging, so there were a couple of moments where we had to cheat it a little bit, and otherwise, it would feel odd.

How do you compare your work on action and superhero genres compared to others? For example, the Westerns in Taylor Sheridan's 'Yellowstone' universe with 'Dutton Ranch?' Does it become dramatically different depending on the genre?

Yeah, definitely. Being that 'Yellowstone' is in the Sheridan universe, realism is preferred for what they're going for. With a show like 'The Boys,' everything is over the top. Every punch, kick, and body hit needs to be huge and gory, and with a show like 'Yellowstone,' things need to be elevated a little bit, but a lot more subtle. It focuses on horses, and I've been part of that show since the very beginning, so I know exactly what they wanted. It was a lot more subtle, and it's a much slower show, so there's a lot more room for the wind to breathe and play nicely, and there aren't as many fights. Obviously, there are no superheroes, so there's no crazy design or anything. It's much more straightforward and objective.

All five seasons of The Boys are available on Prime Video. Yellowstone and Dutton Ranch are available on Paramount+.

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