‘The Boys’ Showrunner Describes Upcoming Prequel Series ‘Vought Rising’ as ‘‘L.A. Confidential’ with Superheroes’

With “Gen V” becoming an instant fan-favorite and season four of “The Boys” garnering some of the best viewership numbers the series has ever received , showrunner Eric Kripke and Amazon are doubling-down on superhero satire. At San Diego Comic-Con this past Friday, Prime Video announced they will be extending “The Boys” universe with a prequel series entitled “Vought Rising” starring Aya Cash, who played Stormfront in season two of the original series, and Jensen Ackles, who played Soldier Boy in season three.

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The series will be set in 1950s New York City and in a recent interview with Variety , Kripke described it as a long-gestating project that is finally just coming to fruition now.

“We’ve actually had this idea in our pocket for a really long time,” Kripke said. “And in fact, when I went to Amazon, to pitch spinoffs, I came with two spinoffs, ‘Gen V’ and ‘Vought Rising.’ And at the time, they said, ‘Let’s start with ‘Gen V,’ and we’ll see how it goes and then maybe we’ll do ‘Rising.’ It turns out it went OK.”

Despite satirizing the subject, in large part, “The Boys” keeps to the modern standards of the superhero genre , with sleek visuals, bloody violence, and obscene language, but Kripke is hoping “Vought Rising” will have a bit more of a prestige feel to it.

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“I’m just fascinated with the history of how we became who we became. ‘The Boys’ itself is basically a film noir,” he said. “It’s like cops and robbers. So to really do it classically with like fedoras and trench coats and salacious stuff, and like ‘L.A. Confidential’ with superheroes, is just going to be super fun. And Jensen and Aya, they’re superstars. They’re gonna blow the doors off.”

In addition to Ackles leading the new prequel series, Kripke also teased his reemergence in season five of “The Boys.” Speaking to Variety, he said, “He’s going to be in Season 5 quite a lot. We want him to be a big character. There’s a lot of good father-son emotion between him and Homelander that we never really got a chance to play that we’re really interested in.”