Now that the absolutely diabolical Season 3 finale for Prime Video’s original series The Boys is over, it’s time to shift focus to what’s next. The fans need more. The Boys showrunner, Eric Kripke, revealed some information on the show’s spinoff The Boys Presents: Varsity, currently in the works, in an interview with Deadline that gives fans just enough to speculate over. According to Kripke, the college-campus spinoff will inevitably see the return of some familiar faces from The Boys‘ Universe.
When the series was first greenlit by Prime Video in 2021 with Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters attached as showrunners, Collider reported what information was available at the time, including a quip from the press release describing Varsity as “part college show, part Hunger Games—with all the heart, satire, and raunch of The Boys.” The spinoff will take place at the Vought-run Godolkin University School of Crimefighting, the only exclusively supe-admitted school in America, and will feature some events from Season 3 of The Boys in the background. With the timeline of Varsity coinciding with Season 3 of The Boys, that means no Translucent (Alex Hassell) or Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) cameos, aside from their appearance as commemorated alums statues on the college’s lawn as seen in the images from CBR. However, other alums like A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), and The Deep (Chace Crawford) aren’t off the table!
Kripke discussed the possibilities of seeing fan-favorites in the upcoming Varsity series:
“There’s definitely crossover, and we’re doing our best to design a universe that sees some of the issues and storylines in Season 3 hand off to the first season in Varsity. Like there’s a presidential campaign happening in the background of that season, and there’s certain things that are happening at that school that are both in reaction to Season 3 of The Boys. There’s Soldier Boy, etcetera, but also some new storylines that are happening in that season of the spinoff that we have to pick up and take into Season 4 of the show.”
According to Kripke, the college will focus on America’s next generation of supes, and in particular the G-Men, original comic writers Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson‘s parody on Marvel‘s X-Men, who were briefly mentioned in the first season of The Boys. The premise of the show is going to be “an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive Supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities.” Meaning, we’ll be seeing a whole lot more of Homelander’s (Antony Starr) brash and immature behavior on a frat boy level and, more than likely, plenty more Homelander fanboys. In the show’s webseries Seven on 7, a satire of Fox News, Varsity was teased in a quick segment, saying, “In just a few short months, the best and brightest young heroes from Godolkin University will see their dreams come true or come crashing down… And while this year’s competition is sure to be intense, people can’t stop talking about Godolkin University junior Golden Boy, already seen as the top pick for next year’s draft.”
Since the show received its greenlight, the road to production was prolonged, causing a couple of cast members to exit after aspects of the creative direction and characters shifted somewhat from The Boys executive producer and Varsity writer Craig Rosenberg‘s original material. Production for Varsity began in May 2022 with Kripke as executive producer, and is expected to wrap sometime in October; after diving headfirst into a parody of what can quickly become a vast pool of intertwining storylines like Disney’s MCU, Kripke said of the spinoff:
“It’s a very different corner of the world and it’s a different concern and thematic but it has been interesting. I give Kevin Feige a lot of credit because now that we’re dipping our toe into trying to build a universe and trying to do it well… it’s hard enough to keep one fucking show straight but to try to keep two shows straight, have them each be entertaining… is a whole new layer of challenge that.”
As of right now The Boys Presents: Varsity will feature Patrick Schwarzenegger (The Staircase) as Golden Boy, Sean Patrick Thomas (Save the Last Dance) as Polarity, Jaz Sinclair (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) as Marie Moreau, Marco Pigossi as Edison Cardosa, Chance Perdomo (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Shelley Conn (Bridgerton), and more.
There’s still no premiere date for The Boys Presents: Varsity at this time, but all three seasons of The Boys and the animated spinoff The Boys Presents: Diabolical are streaming on Prime Video.
