The devil may work hard, but the marketing team behind Amazon’s The Boys works harder. The raunchy superhero satire has won legions of fans for its dark humor and gory fight sequences.
But The Boys is above all a parody of America’s brand worship, avaristic consumerism, and political gamesmanship. While the series’ villain is undoubtedly Homelander (Antony Starr), the real big bad is the company that created him: Vought International.
A stand-in for Fox News (and most corporate media), Vought is the conglomerate machine that creates, markets, and profits off superheroes. The evil company spends equal time selling superhero products and covering up for the supes’ public missteps. So like any massive brand, they’ve made their own Super Bowl commercial.
In classic The Boys fashion, the Big Game ad parodies the typical Super Bowl commercial. There’s plenty of patriotic flag-waving, hugging families, and yes, horses. “Vought is more than a company: it’s a testament of what Americans can do together,” the ad intones, over images of soldiers returning home and supes posing with sick kids. The ad also promotes Turbo Rush, A-Train’s (Jessie T. Usher) energy drink, and Vought’s All-American values.
Season 4 of The Boys doesn’t have a release date yet but is expected to premiere sometime in 2024. The season’s first teaser trailer has already dropped, which depicts a divided America torn between Trump stand-in Homelander and kindhearted superhero Starlight (Erin Moriarty).
In addition to season 4 of The Boys, Amazon has renewed the spinoff series Gen V for a second season. They’ve also ordered another spinoff, The Boys: Mexico, which features executive producers Diego Luna (Andor) and Gael García Bernal (Old, Mozart in the Jungle).
(featured image: Prime Video)
