Prime Video’s “The Boys,” based on a popular comic book series of the same name, is a massive hit series for the streaming service. One of the biggest on the platform. However, that doesn’t mean the show was quick to make happen. In fact, long before it was a popular series, there was development that would have turned the comic book series into a trio of films with an acclaimed filmmaker helming them.
In a recent profile of “The Boys” over on Rolling Stone, one of the co-creators of the comic book series, Darick Robertson, talked about an attempt to adapt his comics into a trilogy of films. While he’s certainly pleased with the life the comic book series has as a TV show, he thinks the films had the chance to be great too.
Apparently, way back in 2008 (when Marvel Studios was in its infancy), Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg told people at Sony to give “The Boys” a shot. At the time, they weren’t thinking about a TV show, but instead, as films. Sony liked the idea, but passed on Rogen and Goldberg, instead turning to none other than Adam McKay to bring it together. Development went so far, according to Robertson, as to include a finished script for the first film in the trilogy and even demo animatics of specific scenes.
“I wouldn’t change how it worked out because the show is amazing,” says Robertson. “But [McKay] was doing really cool stuff. It just came down to it being 2008, not 2018. I just don’t think they were ready for it yet.”
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Obviously, he’s not wrong. The fact that this was happening in 2008, in a pre-‘Avengers’ world, meant that studios weren’t all utterly convinced that superhero films were the way to go. Not only that, but “The Boys” lampoons and satirizes the superhero genre, and it would have been much more difficult to have people buy into that idea if the audience isn’t somewhat overwhelmed by a constant flood of superhero projects. All that to say, Robertson hit the nail on the head saying that it was about 10 years too soon.
Everything has worked out swimmingly for those involved. Rogen and Goldberg ended up developing “The Boys” into a TV series that has done really well for Prime Video, and Adam McKay has become an acclaimed filmmaker who has really made a splash with socially conscious, somewhat political comedies.