The Boys comics – Coffea Break

Long before the Amazon Original “The Boys” premiered, the cult comic of the same name from Garth Ennis, pushed alls the boundaries that existed in the superhero world, twisting it with a bit of satire. The comic’s glimpse of what will happen if the superheroes exploit their powers was made more vivid with the TV series, where the super-humans, idolized by the public as life-saving heroes, are morally corrupt and dangerous. Here are some interesting facts about “The Boys” even die-hard fans may not be aware of:

The “Coming 2019” poster for the TV series is an exact recreation of the cover of the first issue of “The Boys” comics, drawn by Robertson, which was later reused for The Boys Vol. 1 collection, “The Name of the Game”.
Even the most simple scene like Homelander and Queen Maeve walking through an office building in “Get Some” – Episode 3 of Season 1, had a lot of preparation and planning involved, as the production crew had to look for company names to put on the office doors that were visible on the camera.
Once the names were finalized, the legal department of the studio got clearance to use those names in the TV series, which when finalized was put into different nameplates by the Props Department.
For the fight sequence in “The Name of the Game” – Episode 1 of Season 1, with an invisible superhero, Translucent, SPX had a stunt double in a green, VFX-tracking suit stand-in for the majority of the fight rehearsal and VFX reference.
After that, SPX had pulled the stunt double out, with Karl Urban performing all of his fight sequences numerous times, to capture all the shots. Urban, who choreographed his own fighting scenes, performed against nothing, and made sure to repeat the same movements.
The Seven HQ that can be seen in the TV series, is actually the Roy Thomson concert hall in downtown Toronto, which is frequently used in films & Television.
The same hall with the giant X provided as a fitting background for an early scene in the first installment of the “X-Men” franchise. It also goes well with the series, as some of the characters in the show are loosely inspired by the X-Men characters.
In Episode 3 of Season 1, during the race with Shockwave, another speedstar, A-Train makes a gesture that is very similar to the fastest man in the world – Usain Bolt’s signature gesture. The speedstar Shockwave was actually created by the series creator Eric Kripke.
For the shot in the pilot episode “The Name of the Game” of the series, where Queen Maeve shatters an armored truck, SPX filmed a real truck smashing into a steel pole that was later removed by VFX. Queen Maeve was then shot in front of a green screen in the same location and comped into the real folding truck.
In comparison to the comics, the TV series had relatively toned down the sex, drugs and profanity, which are all more graphic in the comics.
The character of Translucent was especially created for the TV series, as in the comics, the last member of the Seven was an “alien” character named Jack From Jupiter, an expy of DC’s Martian Manhunter.
In the very first episode, the shot in which Hughie’s face is hit with blood and guts, including viscera, took just under 8 months to be completed, and was 100 percent computer generated.
The plane hijacking scenes in the fourth episode “The Female of the Species” took around 4 days to be completed, and was shot aboard an actual jet fuselage that was brought into the sound stage in Toronto.
The estate where Homelander visits Jonah Vogelbaum is the Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, which can be seen in the Adam Sandler’s “Billy Madison.”
Initially, the character of Hughie in “The Boys” comics resembles English actor and writer Simon Pegg, who even wrote the introduction for The Boys Vol.1 collection, “The Name of the Game.”
In fact, it was decided that when the comics was out and adapted into a movie or a series, Pegg will be playing the role of Hughie, but due to the long years between the comic release and the jump to a TV show, he was cast instead as Hughie’s father in the series.