The Boys has featured a lot of graphic moments since it premiered in 2019. But the first time a particular scene became a hot topic among Amazon execs came when Prime Video’s Standards & Practices department was reviewing last week’s Herogasm episode.
What is The Boys’ Herogasm episode about?
A partial adaptation of the comic spin-off series of the same name, Herogasm is the sixth episode of the third season of The Boys. The highlight of the hour is the 70th Annual Herogasm, which is basically a superhero sex orgy.
The Deep and his friend octopus
In an interview with TVLine, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke revealed that he and the streamer’s Standards & Practices department had a lot of discussion about the Herogasm scene with the Deep and the octopus, who were together caught getting it on by Starlight / Annie (Erin Moriarty).
“For some crazy reason, Standards has a policy against bestiality. They’re so uptight, really,” Kripke said. “The discussion of that scene and how we pulled off that scene actually triggered a lot of alarm bells at a lot of different levels at Amazon because you’re not supposed to show people f–king animals, and I get it. But my pitch to them was always like it’s so absurd [that] it wouldn’t be out of place in a Farrelly brothers movie. So it’s hard to call it prurient bestiality. It’s ridiculous. To my knowledge, I don’t even think octopi have orifices down there. So there was a lot of discussion of like ‘what are the shots, and what can we do and what can we get away with?’”
According to the streamer’s X-Ray trivia feature, the scene was filmed with a puppet, then replaced with CGI by the VFX team.
Kripke noted that it was the first The Boys scene the Standards & Practices department had forwarded to Amazon execs for approval. “That was really the first time it ever became conversations where they had to run it up the ladder,” said the showrunner.
The Boys and Prime Video’s Standards & Practices department
While Standards & Practices is a usual department in broadcast networks, some streaming services don’t have one. In fact, Prime Video only formed one when it started producing The Boys.
“I still remember the call, which [was] like, ‘Can you guys come in? Because we have to start a Standards & Practices department,’ in part because of us,” recalled Kripke. “It was [our] season 1 and then I think there was like one other show that caused a problem for them. I’ll wear it as a badge of honor that I helped start their Standards department.”
How many episodes does The Boys season 3 have?
The Boys season 3 has eight episodes. The last two episodes of the season will arrive on Prime Video over the next two Fridays.