What were the boys’ corrupt, sociopathic, egomaniacal superheroes like before they became corrupt? How do you deal with superpowers in a competitive world? And how do you do that in this age of change and inner struggle, adolescence? The huge success of “The Boys” led Amazon Prime Video to greenlight a derivative story – its second after the animated fiction “The Boys Presents: Diabolical” – to tell how a group of young people with powers who… the injection of Compound V – which gives powers to superheroes in this fictional universe based on the comics of the same name – they battle their own demons, those of their classmates, and those who try to make them theirs in a university for superheroes to take advantage.
Gen V (the first season will conclude next Friday on Amazon Prime Video) begins with the arrival at this exclusive educational center of Marie, a young woman who discovered her ability to control blood in the most traumatic way: at the same time as hers first menstruation. . Even before the first five minutes have passed, the series makes it clear which universe it is set in with two bloody deaths. Gen V operates in the same world as The Boys, but at the same time its top executives Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters have made sure to give it its own identity, different from its parent series. “Our heroes are superheroes who have not yet been corrupted. “They are still young and idealistic, like we are when we start studying and you see the world in black and white, there are bad and good,” explained Michele Fazekas in an interview via video call last Monday.
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They also wanted to mark distances from the original series through their characters’ powers. “The boys’ superpowers are metaphors for fame culture, political issues and capitalism. “The topics of our series relate to problems that young people in particular deal with,” explains the producer. Thus, the power that Marie’s roommate Emma has to change her size is linked to an eating disorder. Another character, Sam, deals with mental illness. Jordan can change from male to female and vice versa as a metaphor for gender identity.
Asa Germann plays Sam and Lizze Broadway, Emma in the series “Gen V”.Brooke Palmer (Brooke Palmer/Prime Video)
Fazekas and Butters already had experience taking the helm of a series that originated in a universe with a lot of backstory. They were also showrunners on Agent Carter, a production tied to Marvel’s Captain America universe. “We always wanted to make sure that you could enjoy the series even if you’ve never seen a Marvel film. And if you’ve never seen The Boys, you may enjoy Gen V. To do this, you need to get interesting characters and stories that you can identify with. Then it’s the same universe, so bloody, scandalous and funny,” explains Fazekas. Even some of the most emblematic characters from The Boys, such as Profundo or A-Train, appear in brief cameos so that the viewer does not forget that the protagonists of Gen V share a universe with them.
However, Gen V’s tone, character choices, and stories exude a more feminine and even feminist perspective than The Boys. Fazekas confirms this background, the product of a diverse writing room with a lot of female presence, which is also reflected in other departments of the series, from production to direction. “In the first episode, Marie’s power manifests itself when she has her period. When I read it, I was very intrigued by this series because people are still uncomfortable talking about this topic or watching it. We had an interesting conversation in the writers’ room because some men thought that when a girl menstruates then her sex life begins, and we women told them that no, absolutely not, it’s not like a boy has a dream. wet, it’s a completely different experience. That we’re still having this conversation in 2023… That’s why I think it’s great that the series starts like that.”
Jaz Sinclair, in a picture from “Gen V.” Brooke Palmer (Brooke Palmer/Prime Video)
Other sequences show moments of sexual violence against women. In the first episode, Emma is forced into sex after making herself small. On the screen we see a tiny woman holding on to a huge penis. In another chapter, Marie is sexually coerced and, without going into details, she will use her blood control ability to defend herself against her attacker. “These are situations where the women in the writers’ room agreed that if this hadn’t happened to them, they knew people who would have been in such dangerous situations with men.”
Although Gen V is inspired by a story arc from The Boys comics, it does so only in a very superficial way. Fazekas explains that they had complete freedom in designing the story and characters. “I had the same experience at Marvel. They’ve been publishing comics and millions of different versions of the same character for years, so they never tell you: This is how you have to do it. It wouldn’t make any sense. Plus, it’s a different medium. There were also no limits when it came to depicting their numerous bloody and violent scenes. “The only limit is the one we impose on ourselves: we can’t be violent just because we do something bloody.” No matter how crazy the Boys get, there always has to be a reason for it. If it is not supported by reality, it remains empty and stupid. Even if Sam imagines a fight with dolls [como ocurre en el quinto episodio], which may seem ridiculous, makes sense for his character in the series. “Certainly Amazon has limits on what can be seen, but we haven’t reached them yet,” explains the showrunner.
Chance Perdomo, in a picture from “Gen V.” Brooke Palmer
In an audiovisual world with so many stories about superheroes, both in film and on television, the great response of the two series may be surprising. What makes them different? “That’s a good question because I also think there are a lot of stories about superheroes and it was a risk to do another series about superheroes. I was afraid that people would get tired already. But I think what The Boys does very well is turn everything you know about these stories on its head. These people have superpowers, okay, but what are they really like? Because some would be psychopaths, others would be terrible people… not all of them will be people with impeccable morals,” concludes Michele Fazekas.
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