Eric Kripke has revealed the one 'rule' the writing team follows when it comes to pitching graphic scenes for The Boys.
For anyone unfamiliar with the premise of Prime Video's adaptation of The Boys comics, it's pretty simple.
The story follows a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate which manages celebrity superheroes – only these 'supes' aren't your typical movie hero, but instead people who regularly abuse their power and get away with it. Because hey, who's going to stop you when you have superpowers?
Aside from corrupt supes, the series is also known for its infamously explicit scenes, which sees its characters driving through whales, witnessing superhero orgie and d**cks being lasered off.
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You probably get the picture.
As the season premiere for the fifth and final season of The Boys looms, the question of 'what absolutely f**ked up things am I about to witness on my TV' this time, or perhaps 'how do the writers even come up with such explicit scenes' is probably on your mind.
Well, according to series developer and showrunner Kripke, there's one simple rule: don't overdo it.
"You'd be surprised at how much self-censoring we do in the writer's room," Kripke explained to LADbible during an interview at Brazil's CCXP event.
"As you can imagine, like the writers pitch crazy s**t all day, and we try really hard to say, ‘Well, how is it so important to the storytelling that we couldn't do it any other way?’
It's hard to think what ideas were left on the writing room floor when the series kicks off with Hughie's girlfriend exploding after A-train accidentally runs through her using his superspeed, or Butcher's rather grisly killing of Vice President-elect Neuman in the season four finale, but Kripke added that it was important not to be 'crazy, just to be crazy'.
"[That] is generally our rule," he explained. "It's crazy, just to be crazy. I think the audience smells that it starts to feel exploitive.
"But if it actually tells us a little more about that world or that character, then it has a heft to it, a weight to it that I think helps, because people say ‘Oh, it kind of needed to be there."
He added: "I can't say we've always been successful at it, but we try every time."
Of course, the show's finalised scenes often receive backlash for taking things too far, with season four's Human Centipede-inspired sauna scene ending up being banned in India for being considered too graphic for viewers.
When asked about the edit in a previous interview with LADbible, Kripke revealed that he reluctantly agreed to the edit to comply with local broadcast standards.
"I agreed to it reluctantly, because I had no other choice. I actually sat down with the editor and tried to figure out any other possible way," he said.
"We couldn't quite crack that nut. But, you know, I think it's just, it's one of the unavoidable pitfalls of having a global show, right?
"I hope everyone in India who missed the butt buffet can just go online and call up a clip or an image, see what they're missing."
Season five of The Boys premieres on Prime Video on 8 April.
Topics: Amazon Prime, The Boys, TV and Film, TV
Brenna Cooper