The political influences behind Amazon Prime Video’s series “The Boys” is becoming a touchier subject among some fans with each passing season. With the series is starting up it’s fourth season, showrunner Eric Kripke did an interview where he discussed some of his real-world inspirations. Namely that one of the new additions to The Seven, Firecracker, is based on controversial far-right wing politicians.
Kripke was asked what inspired the newest additions to The Seven- Sister Sage and Firecracker.
“Sage came out of the conversation of one weakness that Homelander really has is he’s generally surrounded by idiots,” he responded. “And so if we gave him someone truly brilliant, that makes him much more formidable.”
“And then Sage became a really interesting character, because someone came up with the notion of, ‘Let’s make her an African American woman who nobody listens to.’ And so here she is, the ability to save all of mankind and everyone just kind of thinks she’s invisible, which I thought was a super interesting social commentary on top of that character. And then Susan brings it to life, and is just so smart,” he adds.
Firecracker
As for Firecracker, her inspiration was a bit more straightforward. “Firecracker came from like, ‘Hey, isn’t Marjorie Taylor Greene scary?’ And just that type of personality,” Kripke said. “Like, you had Trump, but now you have these Trump spawn that are trying to outdo each other for how outrageous and sexualized and gun-toting and slavishly obedient they can be. And just that idea — it wouldn’t just start and end with Homelander, he would start to create these spores that would grow into these other characters, and she’s a version of that.”
A few days prior, Kripke added another Trumper into the mix. “I think it’s like [politicians] Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert,” he told THR. “When we were writing her, [South Dakota Gov.] Kristi Noem wasn’t in our heads, but then she comes out and she’s shooting puppies and then it’s like, ‘There’s Firecracker! She’s literally shooting puppies!’”
Confirming the Obvious. Again.
Kripke also explained, yet again, that the show has always indeed been political. “At what point did you realize that that was an intrinsic part of the show,” the interviewer asked.
“Very early. When we first pitched the show, it was before Trump was elected,” Kripke responded. “And the idea that a celebrity would actively want to turn themselves into a fascist autocrat was kind of a crazy idea. I mean, it still is. But it turned out to have happened? We sort of lucked into a show whose metaphor is really about the moment we’re living in, which is the cross-section of celebrity and authoritarianism. And so once we realize that, we’re like, ‘Well, we have to go all the way.’ And so every season we’ve just pushed it a little bit further, but it’s all over. I mean, it’s all over Season 1. I mean, he’s giving very George Bush speeches. He’s being praised by throngs of devout followers. It is there from the beginning,” he continues.
Now that he clearly established “The Boys” was always political, it begs the question, could it get too political?
“I’m just going to lean into it, and then the audience can sort of decide whether they want to watch or not. I mean, it’s almost become like “South Park,” you know what I mean,” he continued. “There’s just so few shows that can directly comment on the world we’re living in, and they get to do it as a cartoon. We get to hold up a mirror as a fantasy genre show. But again, because we’re just like, we’re right there. I mean, it’s all in the original comic. The comic is really political. It just, it’s political about the post-9/11 George Bush era.”
“The Boys” is based on comics co-created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. And like Kripke points out, it also wore its politics on its sleeve.
You can catch season 4 of “The Boys” streaming exclusively on Prime Video.
