“The Boys” is no stranger to aligning with and sometimes even predicting specific headlines in the news. Creator and showrunner Eric Kripke recently shared an example of Homelander (Anthony Starr) aligning with and even preceding Donald Trump’s famous AI Jesus photo.
Kripke, along with supervising stunt coordinator and director John Koyama and actors Jessie T. Usher and Karen Fukuhara, discussed the fifth and final season of the Prime Video show at Deadline’s Contenders Television event.
“The five seasons have been a slow descent into madness for Homelander, and this season we thought, ‘Well, let’s take him as crazy as he could possibly get,’ which is when he decided that he wants to be a god,” Kripke said. “I thought that was the craziest thing that could potentially happen until Trump released an image of himself as God 48 hours before we aired. Can I just say, they’re making it really hard to do satire. Slow down for one minute and let us be more absurd than the world? That would be great.”
Kripke also mentioned that amidst the dark themes of the show, there are positive themes like hope that he wants to tackle as well. He emphasized how relatable it is to hold on to hope in dark times and emphasized the importance of individuals saving themselves.
To close the panel, Kripke expressed a sense of gratitude for being able to reflect the world in the show, especially during this period of authoritarianism, celebrity culture, social media, and fascism. He acknowledged the challenge of hitting the zeitgeist again and shared that now he has to deal with processing real-world events like everyone else.
“I can’t take it to the writers’ room and write it into the show, and I feel incredible amounts of sympathy for everyone because now I have to swallow it and internalize it like everybody else,” Kripke added. “And that sucks! Oh my god. That sucks. You guys, you should all just write about it. It’s so much healthier.”
The panel video will be available for viewing on Monday.
[Context: Eric Kripke discusses how the show’s storyline has sometimes aligned with real-world events, making it challenging to satirize.] [Fact Check: The news event about Trump’s AI Jesus photo mentioned in the article refers to a photo where Trump’s face was superimposed onto the body of Jesus, appearing to reach up to the sky.]
