The second season of the American satirical superhero television series The Boys, the first series in the franchise based on the comic book series of the same name written by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, was developed for television by American writer and television producer Eric Kripke. The season was produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios in association with Point Grey Pictures, Original Film, Kripke Enterprises, Kickstart Entertainment and KFL Nightsky Productions.
The show's second season stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, and Colby Minifie returning from the previous season, and Aya Cash joining the cast. The story continues the conflict between the two groups with the eponymous Boys, now with the aid of Annie January / Starlight continuing their efforts to defeat Vought despite being wanted by the government. The conflict is worsened when Billy Butcher learns that his wife Becca is still alive and she is being held captive by Vought with a superpowered son fathered by Homelander. Stormfront, a new superhero with a secret past, joins the Seven with the hopes of convincing an unwitting Homelander to lead Supes to world domination.
The season premiered on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on September 4, 2020, with its first three episodes. The remaining five episodes were released weekly until October 9, 2020. The season received record viewership for Amazon Prime and critical acclaim, with praise towards the themes, storyline, and performances (particularly Urban, Quaid, Starr, and Cash). It received multiple accolades, including two nominations at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards with one being for Outstanding Drama Series. The series was renewed for a third season on July 23, 2020.
Episodes
Cast and characters
Main
Karl Urban as William "Billy" Butcher Jack Quaid as Hugh "Hughie" Campbell Jr. Antony Starr as John Gillman / Homelander Erin Moriarty as Annie January / Starlight Dominique McElligott as Maggie Shaw / Queen Maeve Jessie T. Usher as Reggie Franklin / A-Train Laz Alonso as Marvin T. "Mother's" Milk / M.M. Chace Crawford as Kevin Kohler / The Deep Tomer Capone as Serge Les Saintes / Frenchie Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko Miyashiro / the Female Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett Aya Cash as Clara Vought / Liberty / Stormfront
Recurring Shantel VanSanten as Becca Butcher Giancarlo Esposito as Stan Edgar Langston Kerman as Eagle the Archer Jessica Hecht as Carol Mannheim Abraham Lim as Kenji Miyashiro Jordana Lajoie as Cherie Sinclair Nicola Correia-Damude as Elena Cameron Crovetti as Ryan Butcher Laila Robins as Grace Mallory Ann Cusack as Donna January Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman Katy Breier as Cassandra Schwartz Shawn Ashmore as Lamplighter Goran Višnjić as Alastair Adana
Guest Dan Darin-Zanco as Doppelgänger Elisabeth Shue as Doppelgänger (Madelyn Stillwell) Jennifer Esposito as Susan Raynor David Thompson as Gecko Chris Mark as Blindspot Malcolm Barrett as Seth Reed Adrian Holmes as the voice of Dr. Park P. J. Byrne as Adam Bourke Dawnn Lewis as Valerie Hunter Howard Campbell as Myron Hunter Barbara Gordon as Judy Atkinson Andrew Jackson as Love Sausage Jason Gray-Stanford as Dennis Ess Hödlmoser as Cindy Michael Ayres as Jay John Noble as Sam Butcher Lesley Nicol as Connie Butcher John Doman as Jonah Vogelbaum Mishka Thébaud as Shockwave Samer Salem as Naqib Jim Beaver as Robert "Bob" Singer Nalini Ingrita as Janine
Cameos Seth Rogen made a cameo appearance as himself in the episode "The Big Ride" talking about Translucent in an interview following the news of his death. Chris Hansen appears as a news reporter in the episode "The Big Ride" mentioning that the Boys are still at large. Greg Grunberg portrayed Agent Bill Pearson for a fictional film within the series called Dawn of the Seven in the episode "We Gotta Go Now". Nancy O'Dell and Katie Couric appeared as a reporter and the Deep's interviewer in the episode "We Gotta Go Now". Maria Menounos appeared as Homelander's and Queen Maeve's interviewer for the episodes "Nothing Like It in the World" and "We Gotta Go Now". Christopher Lennertz portrayed a man singing a demo for A-Train's song in the episode "The Bloody Doors Off". Thomas Roberts appears as a news reporter in the episodes "Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men" and "What I Know". Greg Zajac, Anthony Lake, and Dylan Moscovitch also make cameo appearances for the fictional film within the series as pornographic impersonators of Homelander, Jack from Jupiter, and the Deep for the episode "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker". Kym Wyatt McKenzie and Birgitte Solem appear as actors playing Butcher and Stillwell in a reenactment of the latter's death for the episode "The Big Ride".
Production
Development The television rights for the adaptation of Garth Ennis comic book series were passed to Amazon, after the original network that picked the series Cinemax was unable to move forward with the production due to budget issues. It was hoped that the series would appeal the audience that would give the chance to the company's streaming service Amazon Prime Video to finally have a big genre drama hit show with the size of series Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and Stranger Things. The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke was planning at the moment to give the series a five-season run as he considered that the story and ideas he was planning would be enough to be covered and developed, with the possibility of other concepts from the comics being adapted for future spin-offs.
The second was confirmed by Amazon at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, a week before the series' first season was released. Kripke revealed that he was already writing the scripts for the season and that the production was about to start that same month intending to get a 2020 release. In June 2020 it was announced that the season would consist of eight episodes similarly to the previous season, though it was also revealed that it would be getting a weekly release instead of dropping all the episodes at the same date as a whole. Kripke considered that the season had many moments that he wanted to give time to marinate in order to make people reflect over it and have a conversation a little longer about it. During an interview with Collider, the series executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg promised that the season would be bigger and better as they intended to make the show's scope grow with each season to which they replied, "They already have more resources for the second season. They're adding more characters, the scope of the show organically grows as the show continues. We just watched, actually, the first episode of the second season this week. It was a wonderful thing as producers. This is way better than I ever could've hoped it would be."
Writing Kripke confirmed that the season would continue Becca's storyline after the first season ended with a cliffhanger where it was revealed that the character was still alive. While in both storylines the character of Becca is raped by Homelander and gives birth his child, her comic counterpart dies while giving birth, a fate that Ennis later expressed remorse over how he handled the character. Kripke wanted to avoid the trope of killing off female characters to motivate the heroes to which he deemed overused, he and the writers decided to keep the character alive and making her stronger and more courageous than her comic counterpart in order to make the character into a more interesting character, while also keeping some of her characterization from the source material. The fate of Becca's son whose name is revealed to be Ryan in the season is also changed in contrast to the comic counterpart who is killed by Butcher shortly after he was born. Kripke considered that the character had potential for the development for the characters of Butcher and Homelander and decided to keep him alive as a way to intensify their rivalry of both characters even further.
It was revealed that the season would deal with real-life issues similarly to the first season, with this time taking topics such as the white nationalism, white supremacy, systemic racism, and xenophobia, while also portraying over how people are trying to convey and pass those hateful ideologies through social media. Kripke wrote the scripts for the season during the 2018 United States elections, as the topic of President Donald Trump and his fears of xenophobic views from South American immigrants would be a major theme portrayed in the season. Kripke considers corporations to be responsible for allowing celebrities to spread their xenophobic ideas in the interests of profits, with the character of Stormfront introduced to represent these issues and contemporary neo-Nazism.
While the season is mostly focused on the conflict between Stormfront and Becca story, it also introduces a secondary storyline about a mysterious Supe killer known as the "Head Popper" whose identity remains mostly a mystery until the season finale, in which it is revealed to be the anti-Supe congresswoman Victoria Newman. The character of Victoria Newman is based on Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while her speeches against corruption serve as an inspiration for Newman's speeches against Supes. Kripke wanted to introduce a storyline where Supes would start to be involved in the government and politics, which would give Vought even more power, an idea that he confirmed he would be exploring for the third season, so he decided to keep the identity of the "Head Popper" as a total mystery until the season finale intending to surprise audiences with the revelation of the character due to being initially treated as an ally of the Boys.
Casting Karl Urban, Erin Moriarty, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Dominique McElligot, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara, and Nathan Mitchell reprised their roles from the first season as Billy Butcher, Annie January / Starlight, Hughie Campbell, John Gillman / Homelander, Queen Maeve, A-Train, Mother's Milk, The Deep, Frenchie, Kimiko Miyashiro / The Female, and Black Noir, respectively. In July 2019, Aya Cash was in the talks with Amazon to join the show as Stormfront, though it was not until March 2020, when it was confirmed that Cash would be joining the show alongside the release of her character's first look the same day. Shantel VanSanten also reprises her role as Becca Butcher in a more expanded role than the previous season. She revealed that season two explores how she manages to reunite with Billy, but then being pulled apart as she is killed at the end of the season to conclude her storyline for good: "I trust their storytelling and I know that there's so much of wherever it goes, especially for Ryan, that Becca will always be a part of it, and a part of Butcher and a part of Ryan and they'll go on to honor that, just as though we do for people that we've lost."