There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to Eric Kripke‘s series, The Boys, on Prime Video. In a recent bold and bawdy move – a move even fans of the show may not have expected – Kripke explored the “Thanus” theory in which Ant-Man defeats Thanos through his posterior. However, in this universe, replace Ant-Man with Termite and replace Thanos’ posterior with a man’s genitalia. This sounds like a hard feat to pull off, but as they say: go big or go home. VFX Supervisor and Associate Producer Stephen Fleet took to Twitter to demonstrate just how big the crew had to go in order to pull off this feat.
The Boys is an unconventional answer to pop culture’s superhero mania, fueled by the MCU and DC, and it goes where squeaky-clean Captain America would never. Most recently, in the season three premiere ‘The Payback’, Kripke took us to very dark places when he introduced the character Termite, played by Brett Geddes. Termite has powers similar to Paul Rudd‘s Ant-Man, and can shrink himself in size. Rather than using the power for something admirable – though the term is subjective – Termite is using his powers to entertain the crowd at a party. At one point Termite shrinks down and enters a man’s (Bruce Langley) aforementioned genitalia after indulging in a line of cocaine. Due to the drugs, Termite is unable to control his sneezing and, subsequently, achoo’s himself back to size… while still inside the man.
In order to create this wildly morbid scene, Kripke couldn’t use purely CGI, but instead enlisted the help of puppeteer Ron Stefaniuk. Together, they structured an 11-foot-high and 30-foot-long prosthetic penis, according to an interview with Entertainment Weekly, while maintaining the wishes of the Amazon execs that it not be “erect.” A tall order to fill, but not impossible. Fortunately for the fans, Fleet had his photo snapped in front of the monstrous creation and posted it to Twitter with the hashtag “yes we built it” to ensure the monumental moment was forever documented.
Karl Urban, who plays Billy Butcher, admitted:
“I stayed away from that set. I didn’t feel like that was something I needed to see. After working on the show for two seasons going into a third season, you come to build up a certain desensitization to some of the more graphic content.”
The Boys has been renewed for season 4 with Prime Video, and season 3 is streaming every Friday. You can check out Fleet’s photo below:
