Amazon’s ‘The Boys’ creator on season 2’s immense popularity, the fate of Stormfront, and what the deal with Fresca is

• Warning: This post contains spoilers for “The Boys” season two finale.
• Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” is a massive hit and the season two finale dropped on Friday.
• The showrunner Eric Kripke told Business Insider that the show’s weekly release format for season two may have contributed to that, as it’s “still at the forefront of pop culture.”
• But he said the format isn’t set in stone for season three and that it will be determined by viewership data.
• He also talked about the fate of the Nazi “superhero” Stormfront after season two’s finale and how Fresca became a running joke this season.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for “The Boys” season two finale.

Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” is a massive hit.

With its second season, which concluded on Friday, the mature superhero series became Amazon’s biggest launch for an original series yet and has cracked Nielsen’s weekly lists of most-watched streaming titles, the only non-Netflix series to do so.

This season, episodes were released on a weekly basis, as opposed to the first season when they dropped all at once like Netflix’s binge model. Did the new release schedule help spread the word?

“Five weeks later, we’re still at the forefront of pop culture, which was always the goal,” showrunner Eric Kripke told Business Insider during a recent interview. “I do think it turned out to be a good thing in terms of how much longer people are talking about the show.”

But Kripke said that the format isn’t set in stone for season three, which was greenlit in July, two months before the second season’s debut on September 4. A spinoff series about a college for superheroes is also in the works. 

Kripke also talked to Business Insider about how working on a streaming series differs from a network series like The CW’s “Supernatural,” which he created; the fate of the Nazi “superhero” Stormfront, played by Aya Cash; and why Fresca became a running joke in season two.

The show seems to be a massive hit, even moreso than last year. Why do you think the show has gained such a larger audience with season two?

What we’ve noticed is that a lot of people have been finding season one as so many other people talk about season two. They see so many comments on social media about how crazy the show is which makes others want to catch up. We see a lot of people say they slept on the show for so long but they’re watching it now and loving it.

I’m really grateful. This is the project I’ve worked on that I’m having the most fun on and think I might love the most. It’s the one that most closely represents my sensibilities, so to see it get the reaction that it’s getting is really gratifying. 

What about it makes you love it more than even “Supernatural”? I’m sure “Supernatural” fans will be upset about that.

[laughs] I love all my children, but I don’t have the network restrictions on this that I have on “Supernatural.” Anyone who has spent time in the writers room with me can tell you I have a pretty filthy sense of humor and I really enjoy dark comedy and satire. I think it’s important to also have a lot of emotion and heart, which “Supernatural” does have.

But those three things really represent what I love: real heart and emotion, satire and dark comedy, and filthiness. I’m allowed to put all of those things in “The Boys” in a way I wasn’t allowed to with “Supernatural.”

With “Supernatural,” you’re working in this network framework of 20 episodes. With “The Boys,” do you ever find that you’re too confined with fewer episodes?

Dude, it’s so much better. When you have eight episodes, you can tell a tighter story. “Supernatural” works as a network show because it’s ultimately a procedural. In it’s own weird way it’s a cop show. On “The Boys,” you can have every episode move the football forward. It’s harder to wrap your head around a 20-episode story. 

I actually don’t work any less on “The Boys” than I did on “Supernatural.” It’s not like it’s a vacation. I spend all that extra time on the scripts and making sure the emotions are right versus “Supernatural,” which was, lovingly, endless triage. Always racing to write things and throwing it out the door to shoot it. If people knew how chaotic it was to make that show they would be horrified. [laughs]

When season two first premiered, some fans were upset they couldn’t binge the whole series all at once. Now that the whole season is out, are you still glad the episodes were released on a weekly basis? Do you think that helped in driving word of mouth?

I am glad, but I get why people would be disappointed. We’re going to look at the [viewership] data and we’ll look at whether it was a good idea or not. That will determine what we do next season.

Five weeks later, we’re still at the forefront of pop culture, which was always the goal. I do think it turned out to be a good thing in terms of how much longer people are talking about the show. I know this may sound selfish, but I spent two years of my life creating this thing and the thought that it would premiere on a weekend and get watched in a week makes me sad. This was a much more gratifying experience for me that people would be able to obsess over all the details we worked so hard on.

But that format isn’t locked in yet for next season?

No, not yet. 

How would you define The Church of the Collective and how will it play a factor in season three? And can you describe the obsession with Fresca?

[laughs] I don’t want to give too much away but Deep will have a very different relationship with the Church but it will still be a part of the story.

As far as Fresca, the thing with the show is that it’s sometimes really random. We enjoy that. At the beginning of the season, we were talking about what drink the Church would be into. It wouldn’t be beer. Then someone said Fresca and we just started laughing. It seems like the proper drink for cult members for no good reason and then we just kept running and running and running with that joke. That will be Fresca’s new marketing slogan, they’re really excited about that. [laughs]

In the finale, Homelander says that Stormfront is being held in some facility. Is that a lie to cover up that she’s dead? Is there a chance we could see more Stormfront?

She is not dead but no comment about whether we see her again or not. But she’s not dead and she’s now Stumpfront. It felt like the best punishment for our stumpy little Nazi was not death but for her to end up mutilated for potentially centuries since she ages so slowly. That felt like the best punishment for that character. Hashtag “Stumpfront Lives.”