The Boys are, indeed, coming back, and now we know a bit more about what one boy will be doing in Season 2. Or, perhaps, we know that we won’t see some important doings of Billy Butcher unless we watch a companion short film to get the whole story.
Buzz for the Amazon Prime show’s second season has begun in earnest with the first minutes of the new season and a premiere date going public late last month. We’ve also seen a social media-like introduction of a new member of The Seven, much to the chagrin of the non-exploded or exiled current members that we know of. But the whereabouts of the titular Boys has been a mystery, and thanks to some editing decisions a significant part of that story will be in a companion short film that will coincide with the season’s release.
In an interview with Collider, The Boys showrunner Erik Kripkie revealed a significant detail about what we’ll see in Season 2 (mild spoilers incoming), starting with the fact that Karl Urban’s character does, indeed, meet up with the gang after a bit of a delay. But what he does while he’s gone will be part of a different feature.
In season two episode two, Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher rejoins the group after going MIA since the season one finale. Episode two originally showed what Butcher (Urban) had been up to but they cut it due to pacing. However, the footage isn’t gone, as Kripke tells us they used the footage to create a short film called “Butcher” which reveals what happened during his missing couple of weeks.
Kripkie said the show will reference what happened but not explicitly explain it, meaning if you want the whole story you’ll have to dedicate yourself to watching the short film as well. Though no details about when that will officially drop were released, it’s expected to come out sometime after Season 2 starts streaming on Amazon Prime.
There are lots of other small details in the interview, including what an expanded budget from Amazon allowed the show to put together and some interesting casting news about Season 3. But it seems we won’t really know what’s going on in the universe until the show starts streaming later this fall.