The Boys Showrunner Claims The Myths Of Superheroes Have “Undeniable Fascist Underpinnings”
John F. Trent
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The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke recently discussed the conclusion of the second season of the Amazon show by claiming that the myths of superheroes have “undeniable fascist underpinnings.”
Kripke spoke with The Hollywood Reporter’s Seth Abramovitch, who asked him if any of The Boys comes from personal experience and “Where does Homelander lie on the spectrum of white nationalism?”
The showrunner responded, “A few things: The myth of superheroes themselves — though often created by young Jewish writers in the ’30s and ’40s — doesn’t really apply as cleanly today, because there’s these undeniable fascist underpinnings to it.”
“They’re there to protect white, patriotic America. That’s what they were designed to do, that’s what they do. They’re protecting the status quo,” he elaborated.
Kripke continued, “When the status quo is problematic, suddenly they become adversarial — not your hero. And I think it was written by a lot of people who at that time were trying their level best to fit in and vanish within white, American society.”
He then went on to double down claiming the myth of a superhero is fascist. He stated, “But we just don’t live in that time anymore. So the myth of the superhero taken straight, that’s where it starts to become fascist.”
“Because they’re protecting a world that doesn’t and shouldn’t exist. Superheroes are inherently MAGA. In terms of Stormfront, there was nothing specifically personal behind it. It was just, I hate Nazis. I hate alt-right white nationalism. I hate racism in all of its forms,” he added.
Kripke would go on to reiterate that he wanted to explore “modern white supremacy” in the show.
He explained, “I was really interested in exploring what modern white supremacy looks like. Because in The Boys comics, the character Stormfront is just a straight-out Nazi. But the white supremacy I see in the modern day is cloaked in social media.”
“They’re often very attractive young people who were using social media better than we are and presenting themselves as free thinkers and outside the box — when really they’re just peddling the same shit people have peddled for thousands of years,” he added.
Kripke has made this point before. Speaking with Coming Soon back in August 2019 he stated, “I am horrified and sad to report that there is a rise of white nationalism. And it’s taking a very different form than it took in the 40s. It takes a very social media savvy trying to attract young men and women form.”
He went on to state, “And so, we got really interested in creating a character that could represent that for us. And so, as I would say, it’s not the version in the book, but I would say they have the same rotten soul.”
Kripke would also explain to The Hollywood Reporter that the show draws from current events.
He stated, “We think a lot about current events, but obviously we can’t predict the future. This is the same shit now that was happening when we wrote it in 2018.”
“People forget that two years ago we were still dealing with cops pulling over African-American men, an incredibly amount of xenophobia and “there’s good people on both sides” of white nationalism. Maybe the Proud Boys weren’t a household word, but Charlottesville was,” he elaborated.
Related: The Boys Showrunner Eric Kripke Calls For Amazon To Release “Full Porn Scenes”
He then stated, “We write a lot about what frankly frustrates us. We’re living in the world’s dumbest dystopia — and we happen to have lucked into a show that is the perfect metaphor for this exact moment. Not by design. I think we discovered it.”
“And because we have that, we sort of feel both an obligation and sort of a gleeful mischievousness to chase that down as far as we can and really talk about the things in the world that are really bothering us,” he added.
What do you make of Kripke’s comments?
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