The superhero comedy “The Boys” ended its first season with a pretty major twist, the effects of which will be felt throughout the entire upcoming season, showrunner Eric Kripke and star Karl Urban say.
The final moments of Season 1 revealed that Butcher’s wife, Becca (played by Shantel VanSanten), was in fact not dead, as Butcher had been led to believe, but was in hiding and raising the son she had with Homelander, the Supe Butcher believed was responsible for her death.
“The revelation that Becca is alive is obviously a monumental one,” Urban said in a Q&A for TheWrap’s Virtual Screening Series on Wednesday. “And the fact that she has Homelander’s son is a game-changer. It really kind of alters the course and direction for everybody in Season 2.”
“Becca being alive takes away everything that was motivating Butcher in Season 1, so he finds himself spinning,” added Kripke.
Kripke and Urban were joined in the panel by Antony Starr, who plays Homelander on the Amazon series, as well as stars Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty and Jessie T. Usher.
“[In Season 2,] we really explore why he’s [Butcher] on this path of vengeance — because he’s still on it even though Becca’s alive,” Kripke said. “It forces us to dig deeper into Butcher’s character, which Karl kicks the s–t out of this season and is really exciting to watch.”
Butcher will be forced to “confront his innermost demons” going forward, Urban said. “We get to discover how he became the way he is. Later on in the season, we get to meet his parents and we really come to understand that there’s a certain amount of damage that was inflicted upon him. It’s sort of directly resulting in this monster that lives inside him.”
“Really, this season in a way humanizes Butcher and he comes to … be a bit more self-aware and a bit more aware of the fact that his courses of action and how it affects other people,” he said. “So there’s a lot of personal growth.”
As for Homelander? “He just wants to be a father, which is just the worst possible f—ing thing for that character,” Kripke said.
Starr joked that Season 2 will also provide “pro tips about parenting which are not to be missed.”
Watch the full conversation above.