Over the course of its tenure on television, you’d think The Boys as a series would be content to only dole out one shocking moment per season — but Season 3’s premiere, “Payback,” served as the perfect introduction to remind all of us watching at home that this show will never pull any possible punches in terms of what it can serve up on-screen. One of the new supes this season is known as Termite (Brett Geddes), who can shrink himself down to verifiable ant-size (sound familiar?)… only he uses it for much more selfish, indulgent purposes than trying to save the world. During a house party in which a fair amount of cocaine is being snorted, Termite and his unsuspecting human partner decide to engage in a slightly unorthodox act — but unfortunately, in the middle of things, Termite doesn’t manage to stifle an oncoming sneeze, and the end result is a very fatal restoration to his man-sized form.
As part of a long-ranging, spoiler-filled interview with Collider, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke had some insights to share about how that scene was even initially brainstormed, as well as which effect was actually a practical build for the moment in question. According to Kripke, it wasn’t very difficult to get Amazon to sign off on the scene itself, especially since the writing team viewed it as a way to dismantle a more popular superhero avatar — and turn it into something completely uncensored:
“I have to say Amazon has never been particularly controlling about what we want to do, as long as we can mount a serious argument for why we want it or need it — which we do, as the writers. We really try hard to self-police ourselves. There’s an incredible amount of hand-wringing about what’s too far, and how can we be outrageous, but not gratuitous? How can we be shocking, but not exploitive? We really try to find that line of, okay, what is it telling us about the world? In Termite’s case, is it deconstructing a very classic Marvel superhero in a way? You probably wouldn’t be jumping around [stopping] crime. You probably would be into super weird sex stuff, if you could get that small. There’s always a reason behind it.”
However, in spite of the higher-ups’ willingness to embrace all the wacky that The Boys is known for, Kripke admitted that there were a few… wrinkles that needed to be kept in the mix, purely for necessary censorship reasons:
“They have a standards department, and they have certain restrictions, and one of their restrictions is you cannot show an erect penis. So we needed to, in the design of that penis — which we built practically, that is a real 11-foot-high, 20-foot-long penis built at great expense. There was like this hilarious layering where we’re like, ‘Okay, we have to put enough wrinkles on it. Someone would know that it was at least flaccid enough to pass by standards.’ I love my job, and one of the reasons I love my job is you get in the most absurd conversations. To get paid to have a conversation about how flaccid or erect should your giant 20-foot dick be? I’m never going to have a job this good.”
The Boys Season 3 premiered with its first three episodes on Friday, June 3, with subsequent episodes released weekly every Friday until the finale on July 8.
