With its first two seasons, Amazon's The Boys proved itself to be as unique a superhero adventure as Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's comic book source material. Being unique doesn't mean the show can't take inspiration from other projects, of course, and the R-rated streaming series had a bit of fun with a spoof of Disney+'s animated anthology series What If...? that makes me wish this were a real plotline happening in The Boys Season 3 next year.
As good as The Boys already is, it would certainly be interesting to see how showrunner Eric Kripe could turn these characters on their heads with some personality swaps. Check out the intriguing imagery below that mashes together The Boys and Marvel's alt-universe approach for its What If...? quasi adaptation.
Follow me, The F*cking Butcher, and ponder the question: What If? pic.twitter.com/GFxM71eCqJOctober 23, 2021
I'm pretty sure Jeffrey Wright's character The Watcher did not and would not use an F-bomb when introducing himself at any point, but then The Watcher is certainly not a proper one-to-one comparison point for Karl Urban's Billy Butcher. I'm pretty sure nothing perfectly compares to Butcher, except for maybe like a helicopter with chainsaws and alligators duct-taped to the rotors. In any case, it's the rest of the crew that really sparks the ol' imagination.
What kind of a twisted ass world would it be if Jack Quaid's Hughie was suddenly in the role of Homelander? Hughie is more often than not The Boys' most empathetic character, as well as its least nihilistically destructive protagonist. Would he even actually use any of Homelander's powers? Well, probably as an actual superhero, as opposed to what The Seven gets into within the show's world. Of course, if anyone could bring Homelander's declining public appeal back to its former heights, it'd be the bumbling Hughie.
Given how quietly powerful Dominique McElligott's Queen Maeve can be, it makes enough since that Karen Fukuhara's Kimiko would take over that role. (Not just because she's the only female member of The Boys, but partially.) I'd also be interested to see how Laz Alonso's Mother's Milk would bring more legitimacy to the superhero role of A-Train, since Jesse T. Usher's character is a bit of an egotistical douche. And while I can't exactly find the clearest line of similarity or disparity with Tomer Kapon's Frenchie serving as The Deep, I'd be intrigued to hear the kinds of bonkers conversations he'd have with aquatic life.
Since it seems like a good time for it, can we agree that The Boys' universe would be a perfect place for Howard the Duck to pop by? Maybe portrayed by Chace Crawford, since ducks are water fowl.
Marvel's What If...? is already locked in to deliver Season 2, likely next year, and though I can't imagine the animated series will introduce Homelander or any of the other Boys characters, my eyes will be scouring the backgrounds to look for anything that comes close to resembling a callback reference. Maybe we'll get our first look at the MCU's Sub-Mariner and he'll have singing gills.
Without any clear sign yet just when The Boys will drop Season 3 on Amazon Prime Video, or when we'll see the confirmed spinoff, we'll just have to wait for more updates from the streaming platform. Luckily, there are lots of other 2021 Fall TV premieres yet to arrive, so be sure to keep track of those while waiting!
