Season 3 of The Boys begins June 3, but attendees at SXSW got an insider look at the new season with the entire cast, including Texas-born boy Jensen Ackles.
Lead star Karl Urban was also here in Austin. Urban, best known for his role as Dr. McCoy in three Star Trek movies, appears to have developed laser eyes in the new season. Perhaps even more blood will be spilled this year as the series resumes on Prime Video. Eric Kripke, the creator, executive producer and showrunner, said that the set is so awash in blood they are moving more towards CGI. The amount of time it takes to clean up between takes is so high that is costs too much to use ‘real’ blood on the set! “In the first ten minutes of the new season we’ve done what might be the craziest thing that anyone’s done. So just watch the first 10 or minutes and you’ll be like deeply in on this season or conversly you’ll be like Fuck This!”
Kripke and the cast were interviewed by the famous actor Christian Slater, who we have all seen on the hit TV show Mr. Robot. Kripke posed the question that hangs over most discussions these days: “Is Texas a good place to shit on Trump?” The response from the audience was a resounding yes!
He made the point that while The Boys is science fiction, “it’s really important to talk about what’s going on in the world with an unflinching eye. Things are challenging right now and we don’t want to run from it, we want to lean into it.”
Urban gave the greatest understatement of the day when he said that his character, Billy Butcher, “thinks he’s doing good but he might not have the best delivery method – a bit rough around the edges.” On the new season, he explained Butcher “knows he’s in a war and everybody else seems to have their eye off the ball. The season really forces all of our characters to find out where that line is – how far are they willing to go to achieve what they want to achieve. It’s super exciting.”
Fans are not the only ones who are amazed by the episodes. Urban said that “Typically when you’re working on The Boys every single time you read a script there’s a point of absolute shock and horror and I’m super-stoked for you guys to see it! I promise you have never seen anything like it in the history of television or cinema. We went bigger this season in a big way – more action, more special effects. But for me the coolest thing about it is that we dig deep into the characters and we really come to further these relationships, put them under strain, and into a fun, intense roller-coaster ride.”
Laz Alonso followed up Urban’s comment on the scripts. “Every season I read one script that makes me go ‘Why me?’ and then I get on the phone with Eric and I try to pitch him ‘can we try something like this?’ and he says ‘sure’ and then it ends up being worse than what I read on the page.” Ackles chimed in “He tried that shit with me too! I’ve been on network broadcast television for two decades so getting on a street rumble all gloves are coming off! We’re going to level up here! It’s going to be all the things I couldn’t do with ‘standards and practices’ and then I read the script and I say ‘I can’t do that’ and I called Eric up and I said ‘I didn’t know where my line was – you found it for me.”
Eric explained the show is “uniquely actor-forward for a superhero show because these guys are all so good. Aside from all the craziness the primary goal any given day on set is getting the best, most complicated performances out of everybody.”
Season 3 features a musical segment in the style of old Hollywood films. “You wouldn’t necessarily think of the shit that I write, but I’ve always wanted to do a huge musical number – a blow-the-doors-off musical number. We had this opportunity to do it. It was so elaborate and there are so many dancers and it was so fun in the middle of this show to do a candy-coloured musical number. The show is so cynical and there’s so much blood and violence. To have a moment that is so joyful, it’s really delightful.”
To get a badge for the festival, visit the website SXSW.org
Photo (l to r): Slater, Kripke, Alonso, Urban, Karen Fukuhara, Chace Crawford, Jessie Usher, Ackles.
Photos by C. Cunningham, copyright SunNewsAustin
