The Boys has frequently touched on some pretty heavy themes, but it's become increasingly political - with undeniable real-world parallels - in recent seasons.
That's alienated some viewers and season 4 doesn't hold back on poking fun at certain segments of society (on the right and, occasionally, the left as well). Talking to Variety, showrunner Eric Kripke acknowledged that head-on, admitting that, "One big theme is this election."
"It’s kind of where the season’s storyline was heading based on Season 3," he added. "We have this hidden homicidal superhero a heartbeat from the White House. As you do. When we first pitched the show, it was before Trump was elected."
"And the idea that a celebrity would actively want to turn themselves into a fascist autocrat was kind of a crazy idea. I mean, it still is. But it turned out to have happened?" Kripke continued. "We sort of lucked into a show whose metaphor is really about the moment we’re living in, which is the cross-section of celebrity and authoritarianism."
Elsewhere in the conversation, The Boys' showrunner admitted that they've leaned into the show's political aspects, leaving it to the audience to "decide whether they want to watch or not."
When the trade brought up the fact that the series also examines toxic masculinity, it was put to Kripke that there are "bad fans" who may be rooting for the show's villains.
"I have to believe that the 'bad fans' are a very small minority," he responded. "Because I don’t know how you root for Homelander. When the guy is slurping up breast milk, and being the weakest character in the show over and over and over again and being like - he’s not even particularly macho. He’s weird. He’s weird and thin-skinned, and I don’t know how you look at that guy and you’re like, 'That’s my guy.'"
"Part of it just comes from the practical considerations of, hey, I want a really big tent, and I don’t want to do some edgelord thing," Kripke said of focusing on strong women in The Boys. "I don’t want to make edgelord material for incels, or whatever. I want something for everybody. And so I was like, we really need to muscle up the female characters."
Finally, Kripke had some parting words for those who have attacked Erin Moriarty's appearance with claims of plastic surgery. That's led to trolling and an often uncomfortable-to-read critique of the Starlight actress's physical features (with the suggestion being that she's "ruined" her face).
Here's the writer and producer's parting words on his previous defence of Moriarty:
"I just was pissed that they were coming after one of my actors. And yeah, actually the response was strangely positive. I think there was just a lot of people that watched that stuff from afar and is just like, “That’s bullshit. I get that that person is in the public eye, and you’re allowed to say, I like that performance. I don’t like that performance. I like that show. I don’t like that show. That actor works for me. They don’t work for me."
"Obviously, we all do. But when it starts to become these personal attacks on who they are, and when [frick]ing Megyn Kelly wants to talk about it, it’s really not fair because they’re not in a position that they can fight back. So yeah, all the trolls really can eat a bag of d*cks and f**k off to the sun. I reiterate that comment."