(Warning: Potentially disgusting spoilers for The Boys will be found below.)
Given that Amazon’s The Boys series adapts the ultraviolent and ultrasexual comic book from writer Garth Ennis (Preacher), the series was bound to be extreme in the same arenas. Many of these scenes translate in an absurdly cartoonish manner and are quite funny, which translates into a wickedly enjoyable TV show. The superhero orgy stuff is only one example, and there’s one scene involving a female supe getting carried away during oral sex, which probably made folks wonder if that really just happened onscreen.
Those who have watched the series now know that, yes, she did crush a man’s head. It’s a completely insane scene, but as it turns out, there’s another lewd scene that was too much for Amazon Studios. Showrunner Eric Kripke sat down for a Reddit AMA and discussed how Amazon couldn’t stomach a solo performance from Homelander, the Superman/Captain America analogue who’s played disturbingly well by Antony Starr. Seriously, Starr is fantastic in his role, but Kripke says that his masturbation scene had to go:
There was ONE SCENE that Amazon said F*CK NO, you have to cut. I couldn’t quite understand why considering everything else we have in the show, but: Homelander, after being dressed down by Stilwell [Elisabeth Shue] in episode 2, was standing on one of the Chrysler building Eagles. He pulled his pants down and started jerking off, mumbling “I can do whatever I want” over and over again until he climaxed all over New York City. We shot it! Oh my God, Anthony was the BEST in that scene.
Kripke continued to explain that Amazon felt the scene “wasn’t necessary,” but he believed that “it told me something about his psyche,” and that was the “ONLY fight I lost in Season 1” in an otherwise smooth showrunning experience. Well, perhaps Amazon also thought that this scene would present a little too much sexual misconduct by a man in front of a woman? This move evokes thoughts of Harvey Weinstein and potted plants, but the series had already made additions to the sexual harassment storyline between The Deep and Starlight. Regardless, the cut scene with Homelander certainly would have accentuated his sociopathic displays of entitlement, and there’s always the second season if Amazon rethinks things. Stranger things have happened, like the sheer existence of The Boys on TV.
(Via Reddit)
