The Boys star Karl Urban has described season two as "a testament to the sick mind" of showrunner Eric Kripke.
The New Zealand-born actor, who plays Billy Butcher on the Amazon Prime adaptation, said the thought of bringing the series back for a second instalment seemed a daunting task to begin with, given the success of its first season – and subsequent high expectations. Kripke, though, leaned into the pressure.
"[It] was a huge challenge in the sense that season one came out and was a massive smash hit. Collectively, we were all like, 'Okay, we need to top that and deliver something even better for season two,'" he recalled to Digital Spy recently.
Related: The Boys boss regrets how Karen Fukuhara's character Kimiko was portrayed in season 1
"Eric Kripke put us together, and said 'Listen, what we're not going to do is go bigger. We're going to go deeper, pull apart the fabric of these characters," he continued. "We're going to rip away the things that are most precious to these characters.'
"I think he achieves it beautifully, but also I think he contradicted himself because he totally went bigger. The set pieces and the effects are way bigger than season one."
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Based on the popular graphic novels by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys centres on Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), who joins Billy's superhero-hating vigilante gang after his girlfriend is killed by a careless, cocky speedster named A-Train.
Related: The Boys star Laz Alonso is "mentally prepared" to become a meme when season 2 drops
Elsewhere, Annie January (Erin Moriarty), a young woman who possesses the ability to emit light joins The Seven, an elite group of supes, in the hopes of making the world a better place. But once she gains access to the other side, she sees how corrupt they really are as they manipulate their public image, abuse their powers and use a special drug to enhance them.
"Season two has an epic quality to it. It's like season one, except on steroids. It's like Compound V to the f**king max," Urban concluded. "It's really a testament to the sick mind of Eric Kripke. I don't know where he gets this shit from, honestly."
The Boys season two lands on Amazon Prime Video on September 4. The show's first season is available to stream now.
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After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
