It looks like another Garth Ennis property is getting a live action adaptation, as Amazon has given the green light to bring THE BOYS to series.
According to a report from Deadline, the raunchy series from Dynamite Entertainment has been given an 8-episode series order from the streaming service, just two months after Amazon ordered a script for a potential new series. The report notes that this is the first series order since Amazon Studios head Roy Price stepped down over allegations over inappropriate conduct. THE BOYS, created by Ennis and artist Darrick Robertson, ran for 72 issues, first with DC Comics’ Wildstorm imprint. It was cancelled after 6 issues and then picked up by Dynamite.
The show will be developed along with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg – who brought Ennis’ PREACHER to AMC – and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke. Sony Pictures TV Studios will co-produce.
The comic followed an off-the-books CIA team tasked with keeping tabs on the world’s superheroes, who are not the paragons of virtue as they’re portrayed in the comics. Led by ex-British soldier William Butcher, THE BOYS gather intel on the questionable actions of the “supes,” many of whom gained their powers by taking a drug called Compound V. One of the central characters in the book, “Wee” Hughie Campbell, was drawn as an homage to actor Simon Pegg. No doubt fans will be calling for Pegg to be cast as Hughie in the 8-episode series.
Other members of the team include Mother’s Milk, a big dude who’s been exposed to Compound V since conception; The Female, a brutal mute assassin who’s known for eviscerating her victims; and The Frenchman, a former French military man who is usually partnered up with The Female.
If the THE BOYS is anything like PREACHER, the original source material will just be a rough guide for what we can expect to see on Amazon’s streaming service. As with much of Ennis’ comics work, THE BOYS is a fairly crude series that involved a lot of sex, drugs and violence. Hughie is recruited to the team after his girlfriend is a casualty in a superhero fight between speedster hero A-Train and one of his rogues, after A-Train hits the villain so hard he squishes Hughie’s girlfriend, leaving Hughie standing there, holding her arms in his hands. And that’s just the first issue…