The Boys season 2 features the ‘worst thing that could happen to every character’
There are hard times ahead for The Boys and The Seven as season 2 prepares to launch.
The Boys season two has some nasty surprises in store for its eccentric cast of characters, according to recent comments by showrunner Eric Kripke.
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Kripke told RadioTimes.com and other press: “When you’re making the second season of a show, I think a common mistake that producers make is they try to top it.
"They try to go bigger and that’s unsustainable. The term in the US is ‘jump the shark', it starts to become silly because you can’t keep going bigger and bigger.
“I think the way to look at it is you should try each season to go deeper and challenge the characters more, and make things harder and tighten the screws.
"And you don’t need big spectacle, you need actually more intense, more character-driven trauma and dilemmas for them to go through. That’s what we were doing in season two."
The writers have delivered on that, as the upcoming episodes follows Billy Butcher's struggle after learning his wife is still alive, while Homelander clashes with a troubling new "hero" and The Deep tries desperately to restore his reputation.
If you think there could be a happy ending to any of these subplots, think again – Kripke is keen to back his characters into the most "desperate" of situations.
He added: "We actually played a thought experiment where we tried to come up with the worst thing that could happen to every character, and then try to make that happen this season.
"Because that way you turn up the pressure and they’re all cornered and they’re all desperate. And desperate people start to reveal new parts of themselves because they’re forced to.”
The Boys season two sees the return of Karl Urban as no-nonsense tough guy Billy Butcher, Antony Starr as psychotic powerhouse Homelander, Jack Quaid as reluctant apprentice Hughie, and Erin Moriarty as Starlight, his ally on the inside.
The Boys season 2 launches on Friday 4th September on Amazon Prime Video. If you're looking for something else to watch, check out our TV Guide.
Authors
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
