Spoilers ahead for the Season 1 finale of The Boys Presents: Diabolical, “One Plus One Equals Two.”
The much-anticipated animated anthology spinoff of Prime Video’s The Boys, Diabolical, has finally dropped on the streamer, and it's nothing short of gory and insane awesomeness. When the show was announced, many questioned whether it’d be canon with the parent series. Creator Eric Kripke previously promised that some episodes will be canon and, now that all eight episodes have dropped, he's revealed one episode that definitely is.
Eric Kripke confirmed to Variety that the season finale is canonical with The Boys, which is great because it was a doozy. During his interview, the producer discussed why this particular installment of the animated series was chosen to be an official part of the franchise's timeline:
The finale is canon, yeah. I thought he did such a good job with it. I don’t think we had any specific plans going in for it to for sure be canon. But he just did such a good job writing and directing it, that watching it, I was like, ‘This is for sure what happened.’
The Diabolical Season 1 finale, “One Plus One Equals Two,” depicts the moment Antony Starr’s Homelander first joined The Seven and bonded with Black Noir. Thanks to a mishap on the former's part, the two soon try to hide a massacre. What's most interesting about the episode is that is shows a slightly more respectable version of the blonde hero, who is show to sort of care about the job he's doing. This is a stark departure from the live-action series, where he's shown doing whatever with his powers and not caring about the consequences.
So how exactly this sets up the third season (which fans will "gorge-feed" on as Antony Starr once said)? Well, it gives more background on two of The Seven’s main heroes and provides a better idea of how they got to be where they are today. And according to Eric Kripe, this will be invaluable as we head into Season 3 of The Boys:
There is a certain amount of background setup of really understanding the relationship between Homelander and Black Noir and giving us a deeper understanding before Season 3.
It'll be interesting to see how this information comes full circle for Homelander in Season 3. It should be noted that he was a little obsessed with being the best in Episode 8 of Diabolical, even getting compared to Soldier Boy. Since that character will appear in the upcoming season, the writers may dig into the dynamic between the two heroes.
The wait for the third season of The Boys has been tough. Luckily, the cast and Eric Kripke have been keeping viewers fed over the last year, between the neverending teasing, Seven On Seven, teases of new supes, and now with Diabolical. It's an interesting experiment for this franchise, and one made all the more interesting due to the inclusion of stars like Seth Rogen, Andy Samberg, Awkwafina, Kenan Thompson and Kieran Culkin. Though I'm ready for more from the live-action series, I'm intrigued to see what else this series contributes to its parent show's lore.
All eight episodes of The Boys Presents: Diabolical are now streaming and can be viewed with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. You'll be able to catch Season 3 of The Boys on June 3 and, in the meantime, be sure to check out some of Prime Video’s other great originals!
