‘Gen V’s Eric Kripke & Michele Fazekas on taking the ‘The Boys’ back to school

L-R: Lizze Broadway as Emma Meyer, Jaz Sinclair as Marie Moreau and Maddie Phillips as Cate Dunlap

Mark Layton talks to Gen V showrunner Michele Fazekas and exec producer Eric Kripke about exploding genitalia, The X-Men and a more grounded approach to superpowers in Prime Video’s The Boys spin-off.

After three critically acclaimed seasons of The Boys on Prime Video, the US superhero franchise expanded with the launch of Gen V late last month.

While the universe, based on the comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, had already grown a little larger, with adult animation The Boys Presents: Diabolical launching last year, Gen V is the first live action spin-off from what has been a tentpole title for the Amazon-owned streamer.

The series is set at Godolkin University, a prestigious superhero-only college where students train to be the next generation of heroes—preferably with lucrative endorsements. As the students vie for popularity and good grades, the stakes quickly turn out to be much higher when a group of discovers that a sinister conspiracy is at work on school grounds.

The show is produced by Sony Pictures Television Studios and Amazon Studios, in association with Kripke Enterprises, Point Grey Pictures, and Original Film. Its cast includes Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizze Broadway, London Thor and Maddie Phillips.

Eric Kripke, showrunner on The Boys, and exec producer on Gen V, tells TBI that the series is “loosely based” on a storyline from the original comics.

“Garth’s take on it is very much taking the piss out of [Marvel heroes] The X-Men. So it’s like Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and all those superheroes that live there. But, you know, the thing about Xavier’s school is that no one is fucking and pulling bong loads, which is what they would all be doing at a school. So part of it is that The Boys rule, which is we take a comic book convention and then we try to infuse the most reality possible into it.”

Lizze Broadway as Emma Meyer aka Little Cricket

Embracing discomfort

Kripke reveals that the spin-off evolved out of discussions on the set of the parent show. “We were we were in the middle of season making season two of The Boys when [producers & writers] Evan Goldberg, Craig Rosenberg and I were just kind of kicking around the world and this notion came up of, you know, who trained all these people, how were they raised?”

Out of this developed the idea of a coming-of-age college series that explores how the corporate-sponsored superheroes of The Boys spend their formative years.

“It felt like it had that kind of special sauce of it was a part of our world, but also totally separate,” says Kripke.

The Boys team approached Amazon with the idea, with Kripke revealing “they were really amenable to it – and then we kind of took off from there.”

Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters then came on as showrunners following around 12-18 months of development. “We read the script and it was an easy thing for us, because we were already The Boys fans and had already seen the show,” says Fazekas.

“I’d already worked in the superhero realm; I’ve done a Marvel show (Agent Carter),” says the showrunner, who tells TBI that she relished the opportunity to work on a franchise known for its no-holds-barred plots and imagery.

“I had been working in broadcast where you can’t have a five-foot penis or blow up someone’s penis,” she notes with a laugh.

Top order, however, was making the show stood apart from its parent series. “I think anytime you’re doing, quote unquote, a spin-off, there’s a risk; there needs to be a reason for the show to exist, that you’re not just trying to capitalise on the success,” says Fazekas.

“That was a big thing that we wanted to do; which was if you have never seen The Boys, you will still enjoy this show. I think having a real focus on women and women of colour in this world was great. Starting the pilot with a girl getting her period, which is something that people get squiffed out about, and are uncomfortable to talk about, I was so hooked in immediately – yes, dive right into the uncomfortable thing.”

London Thor as Jordan Li’s feminine form

Grounded approach

With its younger cast and university setting, Gen V has been able to tackle the idea of superpowers and what they represent in a very different way than The Boys.

“What I think grounds The Boys is that the powers are a metaphor, but they’re a metaphor for social issues; for politics, for celebrity, for professional athletes. It always stands for something that’s going on in society, and what we wanted to do with Gen V was for these powers to be metaphors for character, rather than issues,” says Kripke.

This decision meant the super-powers represented who the characters are at their core, he explains: “There’s a girl with an eating disorder [who has to purge to use her powers]; there’s a character who’s gender fluid; there’s a character who feels so much pressure from his success that he literally explodes.”

Fazekas adds: “The other element is they all have a cost to them; you’ll have powers, but it has a physical cost, or an emotional or mental cost.”

This more dramatic approach to the fantastical elements serves the story, says the showrunner, who says: “The superpowers are fun, but it’s not what’s going to keep you coming back.”

The eight-part series has been well received on Prime Video and while there has not yet been an official season order, Amazon has convened a writer’s room, which Kripke called a “good sign” for the show’s future.

Fazekas, meanwhile, said that, now that the WGA strike is over, she is “very happy” people can get back to work and revealed “we are getting the band back together and seeing what we can come up with” as they await word on whether they’ll return to class for a sophomore year at Godolkin.