You both die a parody, or reside lengthy sufficient to see your self develop into the real article. That is the impossibly effective line that creator Eric Kripke’s “The Boys” has been using ever since he unleashed the funhouse-mirror superhero sequence upon us in 2019. The Prime Video present has undergone its fair proportion of ups and downs within the years since, culminating in a fifth and remaining season that appears set to finish the story on a excessive notice. By way of all of it, “The Boys” has weathered twin author/actor strikes, a pandemic, and even one other Donald Trump presidency, all whereas mercilessly lampooning its Marvel and DC predecessors. On the similar time, nonetheless, constructing out its personal shared universe of spin-offs and prequels has made some detractors wonder if this satire has overpassed the forest for the timber.
This newest improvement might or might not add much more gas to that fireside. Though “The Boys” is rumbling in direction of its large conclusion, “Gen V” has already aired two seasons, extra devoted followers might bear in mind the since-canceled “The Boys: Diabolical” animated present, and there is nonetheless the “Vought Rebellion” prequel to return. Now, we lastly have a catch-all identify to seek advice from this rising shared universe. In a Substack submit by SFX Journal’s Jack Shepherd (through Complete Movie), it has been revealed that Prime Video is formally referring to this all-encompassing franchise as the Vought Cinematic Universe, (VCU, for brief). As Shepherd defined:
“Talking to Kripke this time [during a recent interview], he briefly talked in regards to the increasing BCU… or, a minimum of, I believed it was BCU [Boys Cinematic Universe]. However I used to be fallacious. Amazon clarified in a follow-up electronic mail after our print deadline that Kripke really meant to say VCU, or Vought Cinematic Universe. In different phrases, the entire ‘Boys’ enterprise has been renamed.”
Welcome to the Vought Cinematic Universe, the official identify for The Boys franchise
Have we reached the occasion horizon, the place the traces are ceaselessly blurred between conventional superhero properties and their deconstructions? Or is that this essentially the most “The Boys” factor this sequence might’ve presumably performed, taking direct purpose on the MCU and DC Universe in a single final parting shot for the ages? That’ll possible be within the eye of the beholder, however the end result stays the identical: “The Boys” and its varied spin-offs at the moment are formally a part of the Vought Shared Universe.
In an attention-grabbing quirk, it seems that the inventive workforce behind “The Boys” (or maybe Amazon’s company higher-ups) determined to streamline their very own terminology. Initially of his Substack submit, Jack Shepherd clarifies that creator Eric Kripke and others connected to the sequence have beforehand referred to the overarching universe because the BCU, or The Boys Cinematic Universe. As an alternative, everyone seems to be now taking their cues from the fictional, in-universe Vought firm as the primary hyperlink between every present. That is a helpful little bit of rebranding forward of the discharge of “Vought Rebellion” later this yr or subsequent, although it stays to be seen if that prequel may also embody the awfully clunky “The Boys Presents:” signifier in its title, as “Gen V” does.
In any case, this reveal does not actually change all that a lot — a minimum of, not for anybody in addition to us journalists who now have one other phrase to pepper all through our protection of “The Boys” and past. Both manner, “The Boys” could also be ending quickly, however count on the VCU to reside on for the foreseeable future. At this charge, it would even outlast the MCU and DCU. Homelander would admire the irony in that, eh?
