Oi! The results are in and Marvel better watch its back, as there’s a new superhero favorite in town. While theAvengersmay have been thinking that their biggest competition would be DC’sJustice League, it’s Prime Video’sThe Boys, based on the comics byGarth EnnisandDarick Robertson, that may be their most diabolical competitors yet. According to this year’s Nielsen ratings, the satirical superhero series managed to claim a whopping 10.6 billion minutes of viewership, with Disney+’s MCU shows failing to make it onto Nielsen’s top 15 original streaming series for the year.
The news may come as a shock to many Marvel fans who tuned in for small-screen adaptations ofMoon Knight,Ms. Marvel, andShe-Hulk: Attorney at LawwithMs. Marveleven nabbing the title ofRotten Tomatoes’ best-reviewed superhero show of 2022. To further put things into perspective, the Emmy-nominatedWandaVisioncracked last year’s top 15, but still had a much lower viewing number thanThe Boyswith only 7.3 billion minutes watched.
The news is a pivotal moment for Prime Video’s series which isnow filmingits fourth season. While juggernaut companies Marvel and DC have been around for nearly a century,The Boysreceived its first print not even 20 years ago back in 2006. Drawing fans in with anything but your run-of-the-mill superheroes vs. villains storylines, the gore, language, anddepraved moralityofThe Boyshas captured the love of its dedicated fandom and managed to more than successfully make the jump from the colorful pages of an issue to the small screen.
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The Boyscentersaround the titular group of vigilantes made up of Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), and theirnewest member, Starlight (Erin Moriarty). The team has one goal and that’s to bring down corrupt Supes everywhere, specifically Vought International and their celebrated leading team, the Seven which currently includes Homelander (Antony Starr), The Deep (Chace Crawford), A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), and (allegedly) Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell). The end of the third season saw some devastating moments with Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) saving the world from a very ticked-off Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), followed by the former going into hiding and the latter returning to a deep freeze.
While the plotline for Season 4 has been very hush, hush, we do know that we can expect some new and old faces to return to the fold. Hughie’s father, Hugh Campbell Sr. (Simon Pegg) will beback for the first timein a few seasons withRosemarie DeWittjoining as Hughie’s estranged mother. We’ll alsomeet two new Supes, Firecracker (Valorie Curry) and Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) who may be duking it out to take a seat alongside the other members of the Seven. Always pulling in past collaborators for his latest projects, series creatorEric Kripkemanaged to sign on bothSupernaturalalum,Jeffrey Dean MorganandRob Benedicttoappearin the upcoming season.TitansstarElliot Knightalso joins in an undisclosed role.
Coming off a very successful Season 3 run, we’re excited to see what the cast and crew ofThe Boyshave up their sleeves for Season 4. We also couldn’t be more on the edge of our seats to tune in for thespinoff seriesGen Vwhich comes out later this year. Check out a trailer forGen Vbelow. As of right now, no release date has been set for Season 4 ofThe Boys.
