Cast and Crew of The Boys Tackle Toxic Masculinity at SXSW

Superhero television is proving to be an ideal vehicle for raising awareness about toxic masculinity, which apparently translates to copious instances of male genitalia on screen and elaborate choreographed dance numbers.

Most recently demonstrated in HBO Max’s Peacemaker, season three of Amazon Prime’s raunchy superhero series The Boys saw its creators processing pandemic anxiety and anger during the Trump era in much the same way, according to the show’s cast during a panel at this year’s SXSW.

“We're always trying to reflect the world that we're living in, like how certain leaders need to front as macho to cover for their clearly tiny, tiny genitalia. I mean, we're watching the world edge toward World War III right now because there's a guy with a tiny dick who's trying to do a thing, right?,” said showrunner Eric Kripke, who was joined by stars Karl Urban, Karen Fukuhara, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chance Crawford, and newest cast member, Austinite Jensen Ackles as ultra macho “hero” Soldier Boy.

The new season, Kripke added, explores “this idea of what it is to be macho, as created in the last 50 years, and what is supposed to be manly that these guys are poisoning the world to try to present.”

Exactly how The Boys will be presenting these very complex issues can only be speculated after watching the season 3 trailer (that also debuted during the panel). Aside from a gore reel of bodies exploding into bloody goo and strange shots like Homelander (Anthony Starr) milking cow utters, the trailer gives us the first glimpse at the season’s choreographed dance routines, which are reminiscent of old Hollywood musicals and a sharp contrast from what the show is known for. Even more odd was silent assassin Kimiko Miyashiro (Fukuhara) shown fighting with a superhero-themed dildo, one of many based on members of super group the Seven. For example, the Deep’s (Crawford) “Flounder Pounder” and A-Train’s (Usher) “Double Railer.”

(But before anyone gets their consumeristic (and self loving) hopes up, apparently the TV show is the only place you’ll see those superhero dildos despite lots of lobbying. “We have been begging Sony and Amazon to put them out as products,” Kripke revealed, with both companies declining on the basis of not wanting to be in the sex toy business.)

The new season of The Boys debuts June 3 exclusively on Amazon Prime. If commentary from the panel is any indication, season 3 should have no trouble topping itself – and fairly quickly.

“Watch the first 10-15 minutes of the first episode and you'll [either] be like: ‘I am deeply in on this season,’ or conversely you'll be like ‘fuck that,’” Kripke said. “It's not just the craziest thing we've done. I think it might be the craziest thing anyone's done.”