In its first two seasons, The Boys has had a lot of shocking, gross-out moments. But the season three premiere episode pretty much topped them all. Even “we’ve seen it all” types like us had our collective jaws on the floor. And the entire moment was inspired by a popular Ant-Man meme, which Marvel Studios would have never done in a million years. But The Boys is a show that is not afraid to go there.
But first, we have to detail the moment in question. Warning: this is as NSFW a moment as it gets. If you’re squeamish, might wanna skip what comes next.
In the first episode of season three, we meet a Supe named Termite. He’s a clear homage to Ant-Man, or DC Comics’ The Atom. Basically, his power is to shrink down super small. During a debaucherous party, he and a male party guest snort some cocaine and decide to get a little playful. Termite shrinks down and enters his frisky friend’s penis and goes inside his urethra, in order to pleasure him. And yes, we got an inside the penis POV shot from Termite. Then, Termite sneezes while inside him, inadvertently grows to normal height, and, well….blows his partner apart. Leaving quite the bloody mess. Moments after, a fight between The Boys and Termite ensues.
So how on Earth did The Boys creators come up with this one? In an interview with Variety, showrunner Erik Kripke explains how it all came about, and the MCU inspiration for it all:
Craig Rosenberg wrote the script and deserves most of the blame for it. These evolve in a writers’ room and the evolution of that sequence started with, ‘We need The Boys to fight a superhero.’ So then we ask, ‘What big superhero haven’t we done yet?’ Someone says, ‘We haven’t done Ant-Man.’ And then someone else says, ‘There’s that meme of Ant-Man climbing up Thanos’ butt and blowing him up. So we should do that. We should give the audience the thing that Marvel can’t give to them.’ Then someone else raises their hand, hilariously, and says, ‘Didn’t we already do an ass explosion?’ Which we did, in Season 1, with Translucent, which is hilarious.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, that penis was a practical effect. Kripke said “Even though it was very much sweetened by the effects, that is a practical penis. That is an 11-foot high, 20-foot long penis head that has a urethra, a tunnel in it, and built at great expense. We got Sony and Amazon to pay so much money to build this set. And it’s just another reason why I love my job.”
But that wasn’t the only MCU connection in episode one. Remember the Zack Snyder-esque trailer for Dawn of the Seven? Well, after the events of last season, when everyone learned Stormfront was a Nazi, the movie had to be totally reshot and rewritten. Now, Stormfront had to be a villain. But with the real Stormfront incapacitated (to put it mildly), someone had to replace her. So they went with a big movie star: Charlize Theron.
So how did they land such a big star for a tiny cameo like this? Apparently, we have producer Seth Rogen to thank. Kripke said, “Like most cameos on our show, it follows the rigorous and stringent screening process of whoever returns Seth Rogen’s phone calls. And to her immense and everlasting credit—she had just made The Long Shot with Seth—and to her incredible credit, she agreed to come on and help us out.” The fact that Theron had just shot a cameo as Clea for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was just a coincidence. Kripke didn’t even know until he saw the movie. Well, fans have been waiting years to see Charlize as a comic book character, and this year she got to play two… for what amounts to one minute and change of screen time.
As for anyone who thinks The Boys’ opening episodes were frontloaded with shocking moments, let us remind you that the superhero orgy episode “Herogasm” is coming up. We have a feeling we ain’t seen nothing yet. This is a show that somehow always finds a way to top itself.
