Eric Kripke Shares Updates on ‘The Boys’ Filming: “The process is quite organic”

‘The Boys’ remains a beloved superhero series on television. Season four premiered on June 13, 2024, and as it nears its conclusion, excitement is palpable among fans. The season has garnered high ratings and is currently Certified Fresh. Despite facing review-bombing from some fans due to its heightened political undertones, the creators continue to push the boundaries with increasingly outrageous satire in each episode.

Given these circumstances, showrunner Eric Kripke, renowned for his candid nature and insights into the series’ production, recently shared some behind-the-scenes details ahead of the season finale and the show’s upcoming final season.

Kripke recently joined Amazon Prime Video for an interview, where he addressed various aspects of the show and the ongoing season’s production process. He delved into the differences between conceptualizing and filming an episode, highlighting the distinct phases in the production timeline. Here are some insights from his discussion:

Generally, how much would you say the story of each season of The Boys changes from conception to actually shooting on set?

Eric Kripke: The whole thing is pretty organic. Any showrunner who tells you something like, “We have this multi-year plan and it’s intricate,” is lying! I know enough showrunners, and that’s not what they do.

Our process is more along the lines of, we will spend four full weeks at the beginning of the season, sometimes more actually, of just big picture stuff, asking questions like, what do we want the season storyline to be? What are the themes we’re interested in? What is the satire we want to explore? We get a first draft of a map this way. You know, I don’t do it alone on a mountain, there’s a team of brilliant writers who all put this thing together.

When we start breaking down episodes, we start to realize, “Oh, that storyline isn’t going to work,” or “That one’s not as fun as we thought.” And so we go back. It’s like you’re building an airplane mid-flight — you’re taking out the part that’s boring and putting in a better part. You keep working on it over and over. Same thing when the actors come in.

I always say, “It’s my job to know the chessboard, but it’s your job to know your piece,” so we’re both going to catch things the other person is going to miss. The actors are good at asking questions like, “Why would I do this particular moment?” and “Why is that important?” So, then it changes during shooting, and then it changes another time in editing. If I wasn’t forced to deliver the episodes, I would be changing it still now (laughs).

Source: Discussing Film

He also elaborated on how the season is inspired by real-life events and how these influences shape the narrative of The Boys.

This show has always pulled from the real world. But in The Boys Season 4, the public’s treatment of Starlight is especially reminiscent of some celebrity cases in the past few years. Was that always part of the plan, or was it something that revealed itself as the season was developing?

Eric Kripke: We take each season of The Boys as it comes, based on where we left off. Starlight not being Starlight anymore after living her whole life as that person and dealing with the identity of who she is became important. We really put her through the wringer, through some things that are pretty topical. We write about what pisses us off or what scares us in the writer’s room. You know, there are a couple of things happening in politics and in the Supreme Court that we found pretty upsetting. So, we wanted to infuse Annie’s character with it and give us a chance to explore it.

Source: Discussing Film

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