The Boys (2019 TV series)

• Karl Urban as William "Billy" Butcher – The leader of the Boys and former SAS operator who distrusts all individuals with superpowers. He has a particular hatred towards Homelander, who he believes is responsible for the disappearance of his wife.
• Jack Quaid as Hugh "Hughie" Campbell Jr. – A civilian member of the Boys who joins the group after his girlfriend Robin is killed by A-Train.
• Antony Starr as John / Homelander – The extremely powerful leader of the Seven. Beneath his public image as a noble hero, he is narcissistic, sadistic, and cares little about the well-being of those he professes to protect.
• Erin Moriarty as Annie January / Starlight – A devout Christian, light-emitting superhero and member of the Seven. One of the few superpowered individuals sincere in helping the public, she questions her loyalty to the Seven after learning of their true character.
• Dominique McElligott as Maggie Shaw / Queen Maeve[7] – A veteran member of the Seven with enhanced physical strength and durability. Although she once wanted to protect innocent lives, she has become disillusioned and suffers from burnout.
• Jessie T. Usher as Reggie Franklin / A-Train[7] – A speedster member of the Seven. He is determined to maintain his status as the fastest speedster, resulting in his becoming addicted to Compound V.
• Laz Alonso as Marvin T. Milk / Mother's Milk – A member of the Boys responsible for organizing and planning their operations. Formerly a medic in the United States Marine Corps, he is motivated by his attorney father working himself to death while attempting to bring Vought down.
• Chace Crawford as Kevin Moskowitz / the Deep[8] – A member of the Seven who possesses the ability to communicate with aquatic life and breathe underwater. He is looked down upon by the other members of the Seven due to his status as the group's token aquatic hero. Patton Oswalt voices his gills.
• Tomer Capon as Serge / Frenchie[7] – A member of the Boys and international arms trafficker skilled in munitions, ordnance, infiltration, and communications. After being coerced into joining to protect his criminal friends, he seeks redemption for his past crimes while battling Vought.
• Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko Miyashiro / the Female[7] – A mute member of the Boys with enhanced strength and regenerative healing. Involuntarily injected with Compound V as part of a scheme to create superpowered terrorists, she joins the Boys after they rescue her.
• Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir – A silent member of the Seven who possesses superhuman strength and agility and conceals his physical appearance behind a dark costume.
• Elisabeth Shue as Madelyn Stillwell (season 1; guest season 2) – The charismatic, scheming vice-president of Hero Management at Vought International.
• Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett (season 2–present; recurring season 1) – A publicist for Vought International who later becomes Stillwell's successor.
• Aya Cash as Klara Risinger / Liberty / Stormfront[8] (season 2) – The first successful Compound V subject and member of The Seven with several abilities, including the ability to discharge burning energy from her hands. A former Nazi, she holds bigoted views towards minorities and individuals without superpowers. Cash (who is Jewish) noted in an interview that "honestly, the gender swap (from the comic) was a smaller concern than the fact that I'm playing a white supremacist, racist bigot," noting that she had actually received hate mail regarding her portrayal of the Nazi character.[9]

• Simon Pegg as Hugh Campbell Sr. (season 1)[10] – Hughie's father. He cares deeply for his son, but does not believe Hughie has the confidence to stand up for himself after his mother abandoned the pair. Pegg was the visual inspiration for Wee Hughie in the comic book series from which the series is drawn.[11]
• Shaun Benson as Ezekiel (season 1) – A homophobic Christian superhuman with elastic powers who is secretly gay himself.
• Ann Cusack as Donna January – Starlight's mother. She groomed Annie to be a superhero since childhood out of a vicarious Princess-by-Proxy mentality.
• Jennifer Esposito as Susan Raynor (season 1; guest season 2) – The deputy director of the CIA.
• Jordana Lajoie as Cherie – Frenchie's former criminal associate and lover, a weapons specialist.
• Malcolm Barrett as Seth Reed (season 1; guest season 2) – A Vought public relations writer.
• Christian Keyes as Nathan Franklin (season 1) – A-Train's older brother and trainer.
• Shantel VanSanten as Becca Butcher (seasons 1–2) – Butcher's wife, whose disappearance motivates his battle against the Seven.
• Nicola Correia-Damude as Elena – Queen Maeve's girlfriend.
• Laila Robins as Grace Mallory (season 2; guest season 1) – The former deputy director of the CIA and informal founder of the Boys.
• Giancarlo Esposito as Stan Edgar (season 2, guest season 1) – The CEO of Vought International and Stillwell's superior.
• Claudia Doumit as Victoria "Vic" Neuman (season 2) – A congresswoman who publicly opposes Vought and a Supe who secretly uses her powers to assassinate those who speak out publicly against Vought.[12][13]
• Langston Kerman as Eagle the Archer (season 2) – An archery-themed superhero who introduces the Deep to the Church of the Collective.
• Jessica Hecht as Carol Mannheim (season 2) – Eagle the Archer's "teacher" and therapist who recruits the Deep into the Church of the Collective.
• Abraham Lim as Kenji Miyashiro (season 2) – Kimiko's younger brother who possesses telekinetic abilities.
• Cameron Crovetti as Ryan Butcher (season 2) – Becca's and Homelander's son. The character was previously portrayed by Parker Corno in the first season.
• Goran Višnjić as Alastair Adana (season 2) – The leader of the Church of the Collective.[13]

• Alex Hassell as Translucent (season 1) – A member of the Seven who can turn invisible by changing his skin into a diamond-hard carbon meta-material that warps light around him.
• Jess Salgueiro as Robin Ward (season 1) – Hughie's girlfriend who was killed by A-Train in a high-velocity impact in the pilot episode. She periodically makes appearances as a hallucination seen by Hughie.
• Mishka Thébaud as Shockwave (seasons 1–2) – A rival speedster to A-Train.
• Dan Darin-Zanco as Doppelganger (seasons 1–2) – A shapeshifting Supe that works for Vought.
• David Reale as Evan Lambert – A Vought public relations writer alongside Seth.
• Brittany Allen as Charlotte / Popclaw (season 1) – An actress and superhero in a secret relationship with A-Train.
• Débora Demestre as Isadora (season 1) – Vought's suit designer.
• Brit Morgan as Rachel (season 1) – Becca's sister and Butcher's sister-in-law.
• Haley Joel Osment as Charles / Mesmer (season 1) – A former superhero in Teenage Kix who can read minds via skin-to-skin contact.
• Jackie Tohn as Courtenay (season 1) – A Vought production assistant.
• John Doman as Jonah Vogelbaum (seasons 1–2) – The Vought scientist who created and raised Homelander in a sterile laboratory.
• Alvina August as Monique (season 1) – Mother's Milk's wife and mother of their daughter, Janine.
• Brendan Beiser as Jeff (season 1) – A Vought operative who oversees the Deep's sabbatical in Sandusky.
• Nalini Ingrita as Janine (seasons 1–2) – The daughter of Mother's Milk and Monique.
• Krishan Dutt and Samer Salem as Naqib (seasons 1–2) – A superpowered terrorist with explosive-based powers. Dutt portrayed the character in the first season and Salem played him in the second.
• Jim Beaver as Robert "Bob" Singer – The US Secretary of Defense. Beaver's name is a reference to his character Bobby Singer on the Kripke-created series Supernatural.

Jimmy Fallon, Mike Massaro, Billy Zane, Seth Rogen, and Tara Reid appear as themselves.

• David Thompson as Gecko – A former superhero with regenerative abilities and test subject at Vought.
• Chris Mark as Blindspot – A blind superhero with super hearing who attempts to join the Seven.
• Adrian Holmes as Dr. Park – The head of the compound that Becca is being held prisoner in.
• P. J. Byrne as Adam Bourke – A film director helming a movie for Vought starring the Seven titled Dawn of the Seven.
• Dawnn Lewis as Valerie – A witness to Stormfront's racist murder in the 1970s.
• Howard Campbell as Myron – Valerie's brother.
• Katy Breier as Cassandra Schwartz – A member of the Church of the Collective who becomes the Deep's wife.
• Shawn Ashmore as Lamplighter – A former member of the Seven with pyrokinesis.
• Barbara Gordon as Judy Atkinson – Butcher's aunt who takes care of his dog Terror.
• Andrew Jackson as Love Sausage – A Compound V test subject with a prehensile penis that can stretch to enormous lengths.
• Jason Gray-Stanford as Dennis – A man whose car Butcher and Starlight take to drive Hughie to the hospital.
• Ess Hödlmoser as Cindy – A telekinetic Compound V test subject.
• Michael Ayres as Jay – Frenchie's deceased former criminal associate and best friend.
• John Noble as Sam Butcher – Butcher's estranged father.
• Lesley Nicol as Connie Butcher – Butcher's mother.

Kym Wyatt McKenzie and Birgitte Solem portray Butcher and Stillwell in a reenactment of the latter's death. Greg Zajac, Anthony Lake, and Dylan Moscovitch play pornographic impersonators of Homelander, Jack from Jupiter, and the Deep. Chris Hansen, Maria Menounos, Greg Grunberg, Nancy O'Dell, Katie Couric, and Christopher Lennertz appear as themselves.

• David S. Lee as Jock – A former Royal Marine Commando and an old friend of Butcher whom he seeks help from.

Between 2008 and 2016, a film adaptation of The Boys had been in various stages of development at both Columbia Pictures and Paramount Pictures.[18]

On April 6, 2016, it was announced that Cinemax was developing a television series adaptation of the comic book. The production was being developed by Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen. Kripke was set to write the series while Goldberg and Rogen were set to direct. Executive producers were reported to include Kripke, Goldberg, Rogen, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Ori Marmur, James Weaver, Ken Levin, and Jason Netter. Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson were set as co-executive producers. Production companies involved with the series included Point Grey Pictures, Original Film, and Sony Pictures Television.[18]

On November 8, 2017, it was announced that Amazon Video had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of eight episodes. The series had reportedly been in development at Amazon for a number of months preceding the series order announcement. It was also reported that the previously announced creative team was still attached to the series.[19][20][21]

Kripke wanted to retain a sense of reality to the show, and to keep the writers disciplined decided "Anything that comes out of this drug is viable, and anything that doesn't we're not allowed to do". He did not want to fall into the overused convention of killing off female characters to motivate the heroes and also saw an opportunity to surprise readers of the comics by changing the story of Butcher's wife Becky.[22]

On April 30, 2018, it was announced that Dan Trachtenberg would direct the series' first episode. He replaces Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.[23]

Ahead of the series premiere, on July 19, 2019, it was announced that Amazon Video had renewed the series for a second season.[3] The eight scripts for the second season were completed by November 2019.[24]

Ahead of the second season premiere, on July 23, 2020, Amazon renewed the series for a third season at the aftershow hosted by Aisha Tyler for San Diego Comic-Con@Home.[5]

Filming of the series at Pecaut Square in Toronto

On December 18, 2017, it was announced that Erin Moriarty has been cast in the lead role of Annie January/Starlight.[25] On January 17, 2018, it was reported that Antony Starr, Dominique McElligott, Chace Crawford, Jessie Usher, and Nathan Mitchell had joined the main cast.[26] In March 2018, it was announced that Laz Alonso, Jack Quaid, and Karen Fukuhara had been cast in series regular roles.[27][28][29] On April 5, 2018, it was reported that Karl Urban had been cast in the series' lead role of Billy Butcher.[30] On May 16, 2018, it was announced that Elisabeth Shue had been cast in the series regular role of Madelyn Stillwell.[31] On June 25, 2018, it was reported that Tomer Kapon had joined the main cast in the role of Frenchie.[32] On August 30, 2018, it was announced that Jennifer Esposito had been cast in the recurring role of CIA Agent Susan Raynor.[33] On October 5, 2018, it was announced during the annual New York Comic Con that Simon Pegg had been cast in the role of Hughie's father.[34] According to the artist Robertson, Hughie was drawn in the comics to resemble Pegg after he saw Pegg in the sitcom Spaced, but Pegg thought he was too old to play the role of Hughie in the TV series.[35]

On September 5, 2019, Goran Višnjić and Claudia Doumit were cast in recurring roles for the second season.[13] A month later, Patton Oswalt was announced in an unspecified role.[36] Aya Cash was confirmed to be portraying superhero Stormfront in March 2020 following contract negotiations that began when the second season was announced.[3][37] On August 10, 2020, it was reported that Shawn Ashmore was cast as Lamplighter for the second season.[38] A week later, Jensen Ackles joined the cast for the third season as Soldier Boy.[39] On October 30, 2020, Claudia Doumit was promoted as a series regular for the third season.[12]

Principal photography for the first season began on May 22, 2018, in Toronto, and was scheduled to last until September 25, 2018.[19][23][40] Principal photography for the second season took place from June 17 to November 13, 2019, in Toronto.[41] Filming for the third season is scheduled to begin on February 1, 2021 and conclude on August 12, 2021.[42]

The score for The Boys was composed by Christopher Lennertz.[43]

All music is composed by Christopher Lennertz.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 84% based on 101 reviews, with an average rating of 7.65/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Though viewers' mileage may vary, The Boys' violent delights and willingness to engage in heavy, relevant themes are sure to please those looking for a new group of antiheroes to root for."[52] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[53]

Christopher Lawrence of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote: "Irreverent, deliciously cynical, The Boys follows the greed and corruption behind the superhero industrial complex."[54] Matthew Gilbert of Boston Globe wrote: "The cast is fine, particularly Shue, who is icily effective; Quaid, whose neurotic but brave fumblings are endearing; and Urban, who is Hughie's gonzo guide."[55] Kristy Puchko at IGN gives the first episode a score of 7.2/10 and appreciates how the story comes from the comics but with clever changes. Puchko praises the cast, particularly "Moriarty brings a nuance to her performance that refuses to let Starlight feel like a two-dimensional damsel. She's not naïve. She's hopeful. And she's a fighter. The Boys makes all of that clear in short order." She concludes

"The Boys could still be a thrilling ride as it subverts the expectations of the family-friendly genre, with dark twists and unapologetically graphic scenes of sex and violence. The premiere ep has a lot of heavy lifting to do in exposition, yet Kripke works in some stunner moments, jolts of fun, and stellar action sequences."[56]

Liz Shannon Miller of AV Club wrote: "Karl Urban proves to be a thoroughly committed performer as Billy Butcher, whose dedication to taking down "supes" of course has a personal edge, but then again, when you see what men like the blatantly fake and evil Homelander (Antony Starr) are getting up to it makes sense that he's devoted his life to taking down the cause."[57]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season holds an approval rating of 97% based on 97 reviews, with an average rating of 8.03/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Boys comes out swinging in a superb second season that digs deeper into its complicated characters and ups the action ante without pulling any of its socially critical punches."[58] On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[59]

Eric Deggans of NPR described the second season as "a wonderfully subversive, cynically entertaining piece of work".[60]

On Amazon, season 2 of the series saw initial audience review bombing with 49% of 1400 reviews left by September 6, 2020, providing a one-star rating, most of which praised the available episodes but criticized Amazon's weekly release schedule.[61]

At the 1st Critics' Choice Super Awards, the series received five nominations: Best Superhero Series, Best Actor in a Superhero Series (Starr, Urban), Best Actress in a Superhero Series (Cash) and Best Villain in a Series (Starr),[62] completely sweeping its genre at the event.

In October 2019, Nielsen announced it had begun tracking viewership of Amazon Prime programs. It said The Boys had attracted 8 million total viewers in its first 10 days of release, making it one of the most successful original programs on Amazon Prime.[63]

On September 24, 2020, it was announced that a spin-off centered on a superhero college had been fast-tracked into development upon the ratings success of the series' second season. Described as being "part college show, part Hunger Games", the spin-off is to be set "...at America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (and run by Vought International), the [spin-off] is described as an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive Supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities."[6] On October 2, 2020, Kripke stated the series would focus on the G-Men team from the comic series mentioned in the first season, a parody of the X-Men.[64]

On October 3, 2020, Eric Kripke confirmed that the in-universe pornographic superhero film scenes briefly glimpsed in the second season The Boys episode "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker" had been produced in full, expressing interest in releasing them under the name Supe Porn to the website of the same name, registered to Sony Pictures,[65] as well as formally requesting Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Antony Starr and the other followers of his Twitter page to join him in petitioning Prime Video and Amazon Studios to allow the potential web series to be uploaded.[66]